Views per post

Hey, 5000 views on this blog (at this location)! Yay! But since I've got 1536 posts that works out to ~3.26 views per post. Really, that could just be bots. However for the kids blog that has only 26 posts, it's got 1849 views - 71.12 views per post. It probably helps each kids post I send out to a bunch of people.

This blog only really has an audience of two people now though. And I'm okay with that.

It will be remembered

It does not show, but I am keeping track. I am remembering. And one day I will have my revenge. Oh yes.

Every time I am woken in the middle of the night, or at ungodly o'clock when we have no place to go, I make a note. "Is it morning time yet?" I am biding my time because revenge is best served cold. And when the proper time comes (probably in 10 to 13 years), I will chortle and enjoy waking you child. Your distress will be the interest paid for all my lack of sleep over the years. I will collect, oh yes indeed I will.

Bwahahahahaha!!

The laughter

I feel so, so lucky. Many times a day I'm grateful of the country and city I live in. I'm grateful of my friends and family, of the food we have to eat and the roof over our heads.

But what I'm most grateful is of my wife and how she makes me laugh. Many, many times a day. How can it get better than that?

It’s All Beautiful and Nothing Lasts

I'm totally stealing the title, but a post by Scalzi struck me as particularly beautiful. It sounds as a good thing to keep in mind. To me it means to be present in the "now", but to realize that this, everything, will change.

We are all but players on the stage
Our time but mere moments in the play
Rather than looking for our exit cue
Let us spend our time dancing
While the music plays.

Whatcha thinking about

As often happens when I am pondering and staring off into the distance, Laura asks me what is on my mind. Usually I'm honest. Sometimes I say what I think I should be thinking about.

Let me demonstrate with a hypothetical set of conversations.

L: What are you thinking about.
J: Spaceships.

[2 days later]
L: Whatcha thinking about?
J: Spaceships.

[Later that afternoon]
L: What are you thinking?
J: How if I was all powerful I could bend people to my will and force them to do the right thing. Any that oppose me shall fall!
L: ???
J: Oh, and what we are going to have for dinner. I'm thinking chicken.

[3 days later]
L: What are you thinking about?
J: Uhh... about what books are developmentally appropriate for Alice to read and what age I can read her T. H. White's The Once and Future King.
L: Really??
J: No, not really. Spaceships.

What can I say? I'm a child trapped in a man's body. Now to go play with some spaceships...

Who's the big turkey now?

I did it. I hosted thanksgiving! Actually I think that I hosted before, but my brain isn't functioning at that level right now. I made a turkey, gravy, (mostly) made stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed garlic rosemary potatoes, cheese broccoli, and had snacks too. For 9 adults and our 2 kids. Boo ya.

Now, I helped make food for my side of the family (2 dinners of 19 and 25 people), but this was mostly me doing the cooking. Oh course I had a lot of help from my beautiful assistant, so I can't take all the credit.

However, between doing all this cooking, helping guests, carving, making sauces, etc I only took one picture. With my phone. And it (the turkey) doesn't look that good. In person it looked better. It was dryer than I was hoping for, but it's hard to manage a kitchen. No mater if it's a dinner for 4 or 25, I always struggle getting people to actually come to the table at the right time. I've got to work on that.

In summary: I enjoyed the food and company. Yay us. :-D

Mmmm... turkey!

Keeping up

We have a ton of time to do things. Lots of time. But I feel that I've still got a pile of things to do, with the time quickly running out. I'm not exactly helping the issue by blogging, but what can you do.

Isaac continues to be pretty chill and lets us take care of things. I hope that we're not abusing his good nature by not being quite as focused on him as we were on his sister at the same age. Alice being one reason why we can't focus as much on him. That's normal with the second child right? We're not doing any long term damage? *sigh*

I feel like I'm just trying to keep up and the days are such a blur. A fun blur.

Clearly blurry

Living the life of minimal stuff

I love the idea of less stuff. We keep on giving stuff away when we don't use it much and that makes our house "bigger". The other day there was a story about a small house movement on the radio which I found interesting. Of course the people doing it don't have any kids. There are of course extremes.

I was working away in the kitchen after this story and I was thinking "ya, I'd love to do this". But then I thought about it - I have 3 different coffee makers (french press, drip machine, espresso machine), and I was considering getting a fourth. I think that I even have half a dozen cutting boards. That's nuts. I have many things that I only use occasionally (slow cookers, glass roasting pans, extra pots, etc). How the hell could I even consider living in a small house if I can't even downsize all the crap that I have in the kitchen? The worst part? I don't think that I'd get rid of the stuff either. I use it. Occasionally. Usually when entertaining or cooking a large amount of food.

I think that my idea home would be where someone takes care of most of the work, possibly with the place in a condo building. However, it would have to have a bunch of "party rooms" or even a set of large cooking stuff to make food for those special times. Or would the cost difference in a small house vs a big one more than compensate for catering each big get together?

A lot of the time the idea of living something like a commune has a lot of appeal - but only for the use of shared stuff. Does every house need a lawnmower? Probably not. *sigh* Done with the brain dump for now.

As seen on NatGeo

Here we see the Jim in its natural habitat: the kitchen. You can often find a Jim roaming between the coffee maker area and the stove. Early in the morning they are dangerous to approach before they have made their way to the coffee hole. 

One of the things that we have learned from this study is that the more time you give a Jim to be in a kitchen, the more time they will spend there. Generally what is produced is of a higher quality, but not always. 

Our findings indicate that a more beer supplied to a Jim the more food will be made, albeit at a slower rate. However more study is required. 

The logical two year old

Some days Alice can be super challenging. However when compared to other kids, I think that we got off lucky. Super lucky.

For example the other day at breakfast she pushed away her breakfast. She said "I'm pushing it away because I'm angry. It makes me sad." I said that was okay and she could eat it when she was hungry then I went back to making coffee. About a minute or two later she told me that she was hungry, she pulled her food toward herself and started to eat. No screaming (that time), no dumping food, just quietly explaining what she's feeling and then simple actions. Is that a normal two year old thing to do? Probably not, but I don't care. It's awesome.

We bought Raising Your Spirited Child and after reading a little bit, I know that's so not our child. We can (mostly) speak to her and explain things logically. She will think about it, then take action. If that doesn't work, she will usually be able to be distracted by a story, song, game, etc.

The other day we were out apple picking with friends. With their son when he got a little distracted, almost none of my techniques worked. Like nothing. He had a idea / plan and that is what he was going to do. I was just slowing him down. That is so different than Alice it's not even funny.

We have it easy. I know this.

This doesn't mean some days she doesn't drives me mad. This just frightens me when I think about dealing with other peoples kids.