Igloo - Part 3

Almost finished

The igloo in it's final, Seussian shape

Our neighbors are members of the Jackass generation.

Igloo - Part 2

We finished our snow fort today. Pete was much less into it than I was.














It's kinda pointy.















A view from inside

Blizzard #3

Colorado has had bizarre weather this year, with three big snowstorms so far this year, dropping the kind of snow that we don't usually get until March or April. Actually, this news report says that the kind of snow we're getting this winter is typical, we just think it's abnormal because we've had 50% less snow than normal for the last decade.

Anyway, for the last two storms, I've been out of town. Actually, I've been stuck in Las Vegas both times. Missing the blizzards was a bummer, because I missed out on the fun of snow days and hot chocolate and huge snow drifts.

So now I'm happy to be home with the all-day coffee and hot chocolate, a fire in the fireplace, and fun crafts with the kids.

Christmas Adam Roundup

Adam came right before Eve.

So, Thursday night I returned home from a business trip in Las Vegas following a reasonably grand adventure. See, we were scheduled to fly into Denver on Wednesday, and our flight was cancelled. After a quick car rental, 850 miles or so, and one crazy night of karaoke in Grand Junction, I got home while a few thousand people were still sitting in the Denver Airport, starting to smell downright tribal.

It was a good story.

::

Lately, Pete's favorite activity has been cutting pictures of magazines and taping them onto construction paper. He's getting good at it, but we're running out of good magazines, so yesterday, I gave him a copy of Dwell, and he taped this up on the wall:

If you can't make it out, it's a beautiful model with a pet lobster. I have no idea what it's advertising.

::

Today, we built an amazing snow fort. I appreciated it more than Pete. Tomorrow we're going to try for the full igloo roof. I'll post a picture if it works.

::

And right now, the kids are doing this.

Idea Thing

Pete: Dad, I can't remember anything.
Aaron: Well, that's funny. Why not?
Pete: Because something's stuck in my idea thing.

Desktop Image

I scanned one of Pete's drawings, added some color, and now it's on my windows desktop, which thoroughly confuses my co-workers, who can't decide if it's a piece of abstract art, some kind of map, or my own scribblings.




















Here's an interpretation:

• The yellow vehicle on the lower left is a "mooncar", which is self explanatory. Note the wheels. The mooncar is under water.
• The brown mass directly above the mooncar is a pirate ship. Note the anchor and the anchor crank directly above it. Just to the right of the anchor crank is the steering wheel for the pirate ship.
• The line extending to the right from the pirate ship is the "poinky thing".

The Veep

Heather and I took a small road trip up to Denver yesterday evening, and we always have good talks once we get our roadtrip coffees from Starbucks and settle into the drive. One of the things we talked about yesterday is Pete's social behavior. Heather pointed out that in situations with lots of kids, Pete almost invariably falls into the role of being second-in-charge. He identifies the charismatic leader of the kid-pack, gets in close, and becomes the right-hand-man, the trusted number 2.

It's funny, because the role is clearly distinct from the rest of the kid-pack, and it's not a passive role. He's not just the first follower, imitating the leader. In his role, he seems to be in charge of coming up with new ideas, which the leader implements, and acting as a liason between the crowd and the leader. For example, a gang of kids will be playing on the playground, throwing rocks down the slide. Once the activity gets a little stale, Pete will go over to the steering wheel and say to the leader "lets be pirates", then the leader will come over, take the wheel, and tell Pete to man the cannons, and then the rest of the kids fall into their roles in the game. If anyone else pretends to shoot the cannon, the leader will insist that that's Pete's job, and Pete will find another place for the kid.

Being a leader is tough, and the leaders who have the kind of charisma, magnetism, and persuasiveness that other people follow without thinking sometimes don't have the administrative and creative skills to figure out the right direction and keep the gang involved. That's why every Picard needs his Riker, every Bush needs his Rove, every Jesus needs his Peter.

Grow your own mari______ kit

Man, I thought this said something different.

link

And then a miracle occurs...

Thought this was clever:

"I think you should be more explicit here in step two."

Movie Review

Heather and I got a rare chance to go to a movie this past weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised by Stranger Than Fiction. I expected this Will Ferrell, but got something entirely different. Some movies, especially exceedingly well-written movies, give me an urge to try writing something beautiful, and I was feeling that throughout the movie. I'm recommending it.

A little rant and a picture

First of all, here's a picture of a picture Pete drew for me. He's getting pretty good. Click on the picture to go to Flickr and see the explanation of what he drew.



Second of all, I'm disturbed by how many people think that Jesus is returning in the near future. I read a post that mentioned that 44% of people think that Jesus will return in the next 50 years. I was flabbergasted that it's almost a majority, but doubtful of the source. So I looked it up, and it's a Pew Research Center poll from 2000. 22% of people think that it will definitely happen in the next 50 years! And it's backed up by a more recent poll in 2006 that found that 20% of people think that Jesus will return in their lifetime.

From the 2000 poll, the following things are less likely to "definitely happen in the next 50 years":

There will be a nuclear war
The world will face a major energy crisis
There will be a major terrorist attack in the US involving biological or chemical weapons
We will make progress in improving our environment
Ordinary people will travel in space
A manned spacecraft will land on Mars
The Republican and Democratic parties will continue to be our only two major political parties
There will be a cure for AIDS
The Catholic Church will allow priests to marry
The Catholic Church will ordain women as priests
China will become a rival superpower to the US
We will clone human beings
An African American will be elected US president

There are several things on that list that I find perfectly reasonable to expect in the next 50 years. But not the end times.

That's a lot of people who might honestly think that there is no future. What use is investment in the future, thinking about future generations, etc, if the whole universe is ending soon?

Of course, maybe impending judgement will make these people extra careful and extra ethical. Maybe it'll help motivate them.

I'm a christian, but I'm not so radical. I guess it just worries me that there is such a large radical group out there. They're good people, but if they're that literal about spirituality, what else do they think?

Pete tells a Scooby Doo story

This is about 1 minute out of a ten minute epic scooby doo story that Pete told me tonight.

Rooby Rooby Roo!

Rebellion

I had no idea I was such a rebel.

"Blogging has become a socially accepted practice—just as are dating seriously too young, underage drinking and general misbehaving."

Link

Thanks to Kottke

Photos from Our Family Trip

I finally put some photos up from our family trip to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Go to Flickr to see them all.

Growing Up

Lately, Pete's evening conversation of choice is to talk about how he's a little boy, and I'm a man, and when he grows up, he'll be a dad and have kids.

I asked him what he would do with his kids, and he said he'd take them places in the car. Places like Nana's house... or the State Fair. Whatever his kids want to do.

The other day, he says:
"It takes a really really long time for me to grow up, and I think I'm bored.
I think I want to be a grown up now, because I want to have kids."

Heather's response to me later: "It must look like we're having a lot of fun."

Chart Nerd #1

I know I've had nerdy charts on the site before:

Scrabble
Ascent #1
Ascent #2

But this is a new high. I was browsing the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website the other day,

(note my complete abandonment of pride and coolness)

and I realized that they keep track of all sorts of good stuff. So, I did what every excel geek would do, I made a graph showing the historical price of lettuce compared to the price of regular self-serve gasoline.



I may be imagining it, but there looks to me like there's a negative correlation between lettuce prices and gas prices. When gas goes down in price, lettuce goes up. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens sometimes. Check out 2002 and 2004. Maybe this is an investment strategy. Don't steal my idea.

Nora's tribute

Did anyone see the Crocodile Hunter episode of 20/20 last night? It was okay. Who couldn't like that guy?

Anyway, here's Nora's small tribute:

If you are a dreamer, come in.

This morning, I woke to realize that I had been dreaming of a Shel Silverstein poem. I know it's Shel Silverstein because I can clearly picture the drawing that accompanied it, and it's that semi-creepy, lumpy, pen-and-ink style of "Where the sidewalk ends".

Anyway, the poem was entitled "Sandra Dactylee", and it was about a teenage girl that text messages all of the time, and whose thumbs have turned into the keys of a typewriter.

I can't remember the whole thing, but I know the rhyme.
The first line ends in Dactylee,
The second line ends in "back to me" (as in, "she always stood with her back to me")
and the last line ends with "typewriter keys".

It's very silverstein-like, don't you think? I seem to remember that most of those poems were about kids that misbehaved, and ended up having some kind of grotesque deformity as a result.

The problem is, there's no way that it could be a poem that exists. Shel's last book was 9 years ago, and text messaging barely existed then.

So, I must conclude that I made up a brand new Shel Silverstein poem in my sleep, and I can't remember how it goes.

You Tube Dance Party

Some of you may have seen this elsewhere, but Heather insists that we participate in the sharing:



And then there's this:

Milky, Milky Cocoa

The song "My Humps", by the Black Eyed Peas just came my itunes mix. For those of you not familiar, it's a touching lyrical exploration of the "junk inside that trunk" and "lovely lady lumps". Don't ask what it's doing on my computer. It just came on. I don't know anything about it.

Anyway, when it started, I walked over to the computer to switch songs, and Pete said, "NO! I like this song!"

2 doses

Dose 1: When Nora was a baby, the only way she tolerated being held was facing frontwards. Now, when I call her over for a hug, she'll totter over to me, stop two feet short, turn around and back in for the hug.

Dose 2: Pete likes to go fast in the car, and he'll ask us for it. Yesterday, he asked Heather to go fast, paused, and said, "Mom, I wish Police tickets were good."

Rapid City, SD

I'm on my 10th or 11th work trip so far this year. I can't remember. I think that I've watched "Mega Structures" on the Discovery Channel at least 5 times this year, all in hotel rooms.

At Ellsworth Air Force Base, there is a men's bathroom with a urinal that was installed a couple of inches higher than normal. Underneath the urinal, there sits a footstool with a piece of paper taped to the top. The paper reads,

One step for small man,
one cleaner bathroom for mankind.

We'll be listening to Lawrence Welk

Heather says that tomorrow night we're having old people dinner:

Tuna Noodle Casserole and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Actually, my trendspotter recently reported that Pineapple Upside-Down Cake is getting hip again.

Uncovery #8

Incredibly Cute Video:

Link

Thanks to Becky

Action Shots #11

We successfully resisted* the temptation to get a mini-van and instead, we bought a new Subaru yesterday.

Here it is:


*Actually, we came perilously close to buying a mini-van, actually driving up to Denver, test driving it, and making an offer. Then, we nicknamed it "Turd" and realized that we hadn't fallen in love with it, and it wasn't that good a deal anyway.

Uncovery #7

Cool Honda Civic commercial where all of the sounds of a car are beautifully imitated by a choir.

link

The graphicals

I'm stuck in South Carolina while my baby teeths at home. It bugs.

But I made some graphs of my run. Because I'm obsessed with graphs and charts.

The first shows my split times during the run. The line is my cumulative time. The bars are the times for each split.



This next one shows my speed over the course of the run, compared with my goal and last year.



This last one is the big daddy. I was watching it grow all year. It shows every run I've done this year. All 101. The pace per mile is graphed on the vertical axis, and the date is on the horizontal axis. The width of each inner circle corresponds to the distance of the run. The distance between the inner and outer circle shows the elevation gain of the run.





And here's something extra.

link

Race Report

How do you like my badass baby blue bandana?
(Heather made it out of an old button-up oxford shirt for extra nerd points)

Before the start.

6:00am: We left the house, and drove through steady rain to Manitou. I was thinking that it would have been nicer to stay in bed than to run in cold rain for 4 hours. As the sun rose, Pikes Peak was wrapped in clouds, and it looked very intimidating.

7:00am: There was no rain as the race started.

9:20am: Two other runners and I were at timberline, with three hard, steep, oxygen-deprived miles to go, and the following exchange took place:

Runner 1 - The winner is finishing right about now.
Runner 2 - So, we don't have a chance then.
Runner 3 - Yeah, it's a tight race for second.

10:10am: There was a little girl standing by herself, cheering all of the runners on with about a mile to go. The guy in front of me told her, randomly, that she had the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. A couple of minutes later, he turned back to me and said "she did though, didn't she?" I asked him to consider the possibility that he was hallucinating.

I couldn't summon
up a brief running spurt
for the photographer.

10:15am: With a little more than half a mile to go, there was a man sitting by the trail with a plateful of Nilla wafers, saying "Have a vanilla thin, it'll get you to the finish. Guaranteed to take several minutes off your time." I grabbed one.

10:24am: Ty Shesky* finished.

Nearing the finish

10:30am: I finished.

Overall, it was a dream race. I was aiming for 3:45, and I got 3:30. Can't complain about that. My main impression this year was that I was surrounded by hardass runners all day, not like last year, when there seemed to be lots of twangy lowlanders around.

I'll put together some graphs and charts tomorrow, because I'm a little bit OCD about graphs and charts and spreadsheets, and I'll post them because Robyn demanded it.

*Ty Shesky, if you're reading this, I don't have anything against you. In fact, you're one of the good weathermen. But I wanted to beat you. One should never refuse the opportunity to beat a celebrity at something if one has the chance.

My Second Ascent

Tomorrow I'm running up Pikes Peak again.

The forecast tomorrow is for

And that means

On top of

So, I may have some good stories to tell. Like how it feels to be hit by

I'm sure I'll have lots of good charts and graphs, just like last year.

I just hope I beat Ty Shesky.

A Question to Tell You #10

Actually, 3 questions to tell you:

1. Last week, Pete called me at work to tell me that if your clothes catch on fire, you're supposed to drop to the ground.

2. Today, he called me and told me that he deescovered that if you mix yellow and red, you get orange!

3. When I was walking to catch the bus this afternoon, I was informed by a young man in a low-slung car that I had a nice tie on and "where'd ya get it, Gays R Us?"

I like this tie.

Uncovery #6

Politics aside, this is pretty clever work. Now someone needs to do it with the donkey.


(link)
(via Neatorama)

Saskatchewan

Heather's reading a Scooby-Doo book to Pete across the room, and where there was a bigfoot character, she called it a Saskatchewan instead of a Sasquatch. She also says "gigantuan" to describe something very large, and believes it's a word (and I must concede that the urban dictionary agrees.)

And I married her 5 years ago today. I'm proud of my judgement and impressed by her grace.

A little break

Sorry for the lack of posting this week, but I'm in Abilene, Texas, the "Friendly Frontier."

Texas is like another country, which is an image that some Texans are probably happy to cultivate. The roads work differently. The streetlights hang sideways. And tonight, upon exiting Chili's Grill and Bar, I heard a pretty girl say into her cell phone, "I'm thinking Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles for dinner tomorrow night, what do y'all think?"

This Happened Today

A Question to Tell You #9

Pete: Can you play with me?
Heather: Not right now, bud, I need to clean up this room.
Pete: Mom, you don't have to just clean every second.

Uncovery #5

I could use some of this action. This weekend, I weighed myself at Drivers License minus 15 pounds.

via Boing Boing

Udaman!

I have absolutely no interest in being "the man."

That guy at the bus station with the long jet-black permed hair, wearing a muscle shirt (cropped above the belly button) over genuine unnaturally large muscles, with jeans that are tight on top, baggy around the knees and tight again at the ankles: He was the man sometime around 1984.

The runner, with his grey mane of hair flowing behind him, who is wearing only running shorts (the old, tiny kind that show an abundance of side thigh) and shoes: He was the man in 1978.

The thick neck who's sitting one booth over with his hat on backwards, talking about his fantasy football draft to his wife, who's looking at her menu: he was the man a few years ago.

As soon as you say "I'm the man," time clamps down, and you're instantly not the man anymore. Forever.

So, if I'm ever acting like the man, grab my forearm or chin, and tell me forcefully "You don't want this."

A Question to Tell You #8

A good big brother, or a little unsettling?

Me: What did you do today?
Pete: We took Nora to the doctor.
Me: Oh, what did you do there?
Pete: They kinda gave her some shots.
Me: How did you feel about that?
Pete: I think I just felt angry.

Action Shots #10

On a first birthday, it's all pretty much a build-up to watching the yearling eat cake.

Happy Birthday Nora

July 15 2005

August 15 2005

September 3 2005

October 8 2005

November 20 2005

December 6 2005

January 8 2006

February 23 2006

March 7 2006

April 18 2006

May 1 2006

June 16 2006

July 15 2006

A Question to Tell You #7

Tonight, Pete was unable to go when we sat him down for the before-bed potty.

Pete: Maybe my penis is just sad.
Me: Oh, why would it be so sad?
Pete: I think it's too tired.

Sadly, I know the feeling.

A Question to Tell You #6

Yes, we spank our kids. Well, only Pete so far, but I'm sure Nora will grow into it in a couple of years.

We also feed them french fries, let them watch cartoons, give them baths less than daily, and sometimes say "not right now" when Pete asks sweetly if we'll play with him.

I know, these things would put us on lots of bad parent lists, but we have no guilt. We were young and idealistic once too, but once you have kids of your own - I hate to use that phrase - you understand that idealism compromises with survivalism minute to minute.

But Pete has implemented a new spanking strategy that is particularly sophisticated. We give him the warnings, employ other means of showing our disapproval (denial of things, time outs, etc.). When all diplomatic means are exhausted, we tell him that he's going to get a spanking. We usually let him stew for a little bit, to show him that it's not angry, rash behavior on our part, and because the psychological impact of waiting for the spanking is where the actual discipline happens.

Today, he got quiet, and said, "I think it's okay if you give me a spanking". Then later "I don't care if you give me a spanking. I don't mind." Not crying or wailing or yelling, just matter of fact, like "I don't care if I have milk or water."

So, we got home, Heather took him to his room, and he was acting very sweet, wanting hugs and such, and she told him that she had to give him a spanking now, and he just said "Ok mom".

Later I went to talk with him about it, and asked if he had gotten a spanking, and he said "Yes, but I didn't care."

How the hell do you work with that? I don't think it's possible that he really doesn't care. But then does that mean that he has learned some pretty advanced manipulation? This is reverse psychology like Brer Rabbit and the briar patch. Next, he'll probably tell us that he really likes getting spankings, and "Oh no, Daddy, don't feed me that ice cream, I really don't like eating ice cream."

Action Shots #9