I know, I know

One of the things that annoys me most on blogs is when the author apologizes for being lame. Blogs can be very whiny and self-righteous at the same time, and this is the epitome. If you're going to be lame, don't make it worse by apologizing. In fact, if you think what you're writing is lame, then don't write it. Unless you don't really think it's lame at all, but you're afraid of criticism and want to set a stage where, in case the consensus is that it's lame, you can say that you said it first. Like that's any kind of an excuse at all.

On that note, and with a dose of hypocrisy, I'd like to apologize for being lame lately on the website. I haven't had much to say. Rather, I have had plenty to say, but not the discipline to say it right.

So, I'd like to plead for the patience of any readers that remain after this content drought. I'm going to be rolling out something new in the next few days. It's super exciting.

You can't stand the suspense.

For the road, I'll leave with some interesting information about the origin of the word "boondocks". Heather and I both connect it in our brains with swampy southern locations, but it turns out that we're off-base. Link.

Motherluvin

We had a great Mothers' day weekend. Some notes:

1. On Saturday night, we went to see Sesame Street Live at the Denver Coliseum (Claim to fame: it's right next door to the dogfood/glue factory). The ceiling of the coliseum was dotted by a graveyard of elmo-head balloons. It was a decent production, and had a good message, part of which involved cookie monster learning to "eat his colors" in order to get a well-rounded diet (pretty clever way to get kids to recognize the value of nutritional diversity and poke holes in the "wonderbread is nutritious" mythology). During this section, some giant vegetables came on stage and danced around, and Pete leaned over to me and said "Those are probably just costumes". Pete and his cousin enjoyed the show, but I wasn't sure if the educational value had soaked in until last night, at dinner, Pete announced "I'm a crazy cookie monster, and I'm eating my colors!"

2. Yesterday and today, I've been really feeling Mothers' Day. I'm so lucky to have such great moms in my life. I spent all of yesterday going in and out of misty-eyed choked up joy, watching Heather with our kids. She's amazing. I'm very impressed by skillful mothering, and I appreciate it more now that I'm a parent. When I was a kid, I didn't think about how much giving my mom did. I know now that kids are constantly asking (verbally or not) for a parent's physical and emotional energy, and it's not easy to give as much as my mom did (and does). As experts always do, good mothers (like my mom, Heather, and her mom) make it look easy.

I'm continually reminded that quality of mothering, good or bad, echoes through a person's whole life, and usually following generations. In 25 or 30 years, Nora's husband (please allow me to make a couple of assumptions here) will sit down and be speechlessly thankful that his kids have a strong, independent, nurturing mother, and then he'll think about Nora's mother, and Nora's grandmothers, and how beautiful it is that good bedtime story skills and protective playground instincts can be passed down just as much as nose shapes and hair color.

Mary went to school one day,

I'm totally addicted to this Youtube thing. Apparently, so addicted that I don't see any need to contribute anything creative to this blog.

Anyway, if you listen closely, you can hear Pete's cover of Mary Had a Little Lamb.

A gingersnap awaits you...

Someone in germany was our 3000th visitor today. In the spirit of past milestones, I owe you a gingersnap. Please step forward.

Nora and Pete do their things

Nora is always entertained,



and Pete wants to take your picture:

Oenophile

Heather: What kind of wine is that?
Me: Sauvignon Blanc
Pete: What kind of Savvy-Yum-Yum?

Wishing I was Japanese...

Someday, when I'm older, I'm going to spend my money amassing a large collection of marbles, magnets, wooden chutes,and hammers, and I'm going to spend every day building a new machine like the ones in this video. You can help if you want.

Incredible Machines

Thanks to Make:Blog

I'm a happy man...

"There ought to be behind the door of every happy, contented man some one standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people." - Chekhov

Heather's response: "Just go to WalMart."

Brings back memories of college physics...

Pete at dinner tonight:

Fit, fat, fot

Yesterday, Pete bumped up against the dumbness and incomprehensibility of the english language.

I forget the details, but he said that today, something didn't fit, but yesterday, it fot.