Feastivus

Highlights:

• Laura's rolls (buttery flavor, soft texture, lovely shapes)
• Tim's Pumpkin Pie (keyword: streusel)
• Cranberry Relish- here's a recipe, but I only use 1 1/2 cups of sugar, leave the peels on the apples, and add toasted pecans
• Successfully brined turkey (thank you Joy of Cooking)

I am grateful for the noise in my life

Calvin is grateful for his blanket

Calvin loves his "ammal" blanket Linus style. I'm surprised that it's structural integrity has held up as long as it has: a testament to my mother's quilting and fabric choosing abilities. He has to have it "spread" just right over him so that he can see both the brown and the gray kangaroos.

Peter is grateful for Laura

We went to a dinner tonight in honor of Laura's (my sister) birthday. We forgot the age-old tradition of going around the table and saying what we like best about the birthday honoree, so that what this blog post is for, and feel free to add a comment about her.

Peter likes that he can have an honest conversation with Laura and be very blunt in his statements without offending her. In the rare case he does offend her, she is quick to tell him so and they can talk it out instead of leaving him to wonder what went wrong.
Even after living in two Asian countries on her own, this was Laura's first trip to an ATM ever. It was only a couple of years ago.

I am grateful for Paul Bunyan

Yes, the man who is 63 axe handles high with his feet on the ground and his head in the sky. Why? He allowed me to sleep an extra hour this morning after Calvin awoke way too early. He, along with John Henry, Casey Jones, and Johnny Appleseed also provided the soundtrack for our day as we all at various times started singing the Disney songs from the movie Legends.

Bryn is grateful for the sixth planet

Bryn is grateful for the planet Saturn. She talked about it all the way to preschool today. It all started when Calvin started chanting Sapurn, Sapurn, Sapurn, and Bryn starting crying crocodile tears and said indignantly, "Don't call my favorite planet names!" Later, after she had gathered herself, she informed us that her first daughter shall be named Saturn.

Peter's Eights

I had so much fun projecting my kids' answers on the last tag, that I thought I'd invite Peter to fill out this tag (thanks Sherie!) for himself. So for today, enjoy the guest columnist.

PETER'S ANSWERS:

8 FAVORITE SHOWS
1. The Wonder Years
2. Northern Exposure
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation
4. Lost
5. House, M.D. (though not as much this season)
6. Ed
7. Black Adder Goes Forth
8. Jeopardy!

Edit: As my dad pointed out, I forgot All Things Great and Small, which probably makes the cut before Lost.

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. Started a thread at Hatrack on the ethics of parents removing their children's vascular birthmarks, and whether children have a "right to look normal."
2. Read this fascinating paper on inferring Markov Random Field networks from Gaussian or binary random variable realizations.
3. Went to a lecture from two members of "Planet Dinosaur" on their strategy for winning the $1,000,000 Netflix Prize.
4. Read Pres. Monson's conference talk: "Finding Joy in the Journey"
5. Put the kids to bed. Alone. Again.
6. Watched House, M.D. (very disappointing episode)
7. Argued with Cami about the morality of parents removing their children's vascular birthmarks, and whether children have a "right to look normal."
8. Almost slept on the couch.

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO
1. Being done with my Network Algorithms exam (this Friday).
2. Tying up some loose ends on some research on coherent probability assessments (this month, Insha'Allah).
3. Going to the mother state for the holidays for the first time in seven years.
4. Next Patriot's Day, because c'mon, it's Patriot's Day (Apr. 19).
5. Changing that "MS" after my name to "PhD" (some time this side of May 2011).
6. Visiting the British Isles (before I'm too old to hike around the Yorkshire moors).
7. My daughter's wedding day (not for a long, long time)
8. Going home (both at the end of each day, and ultimately)

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
1. Aspasia (now defunct)
2. Le Cafe du Commerce
3. Lamb's Grill
4. Blue Ribbon BBQ
5. The Coppermill
6. Thai Moon (Mmmm, crab rangoon)
7. LaBella's
8. Grant Hotel Restaurant in San Diego, CA

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST
1. A new boiler
2. A chimney cap
3. A school scarf in my school's colors (but without the logo on it, at least noticeably)
4. A suitable replacement for the flat cap I lost last winter
5. A weatherized bike, so I can ride to work in the rain and cold
6. President elect Obama returning to the issues that made him interesting back in 2004 (I'm not holding my breath)
7. A healthy, happy family (in perpetuity)
8. Peace on earth, good will toward men

Nine Days of Gratitude

As we approach our favorite food over-consumption holiday, I'm going to post something each day until T-Day (or at least try) of something one of us is grateful for (thanks to Karen who inspired me with her grapefruit).

So for the gratitude post today, Calvin is grateful for his faithful playmates (p.s. Can you tell he likes to sleep with his head under his blankets?).

Leaves 1 Me 1

The leaves pulled in a big win in today's match up. After spending all morning and lunchtime furiously raking and blowing, I suffered a big loss when the leaves put in a ringer: the rain. So there's a big old pile of leaves sitting in the second parking space in our driveway getting soaked. With my luck, the rain won't let up and then the snow will start and it will be there all winter. Grumble grumble grumble.

The yard's mound-of-dirtness was getting to me after seeing the above picture, so I thought I'd spruce things up a bit in Paint. Here's what it would look like with a luscious patch of grass and, of course, crabgrass.

On a normal day

We had a pretty normal day today, so I thought I'd highlight some abnormal things:

• I watched a blue jay eat Shelob right out of the window frame. It reminded me of a clumsy awkward slow-motion hummingbird as it tried to maintain flight position long enough to nab the spider. If the kids ask, Shelob is in Florida until March (when we'll no doubt get a replacement).
• My kids giggled and giggled at a murder of crows that filled the skies and the empty trees in our front yard. We counted at least 20 in one tree.
• I knew my tire needed a little air, but when I went to take it to the gas station, I realized it needed a lot of air (it was pretty much sitting on it's rim). So I pumped up the car's tire with my bike pump. I'm going to call that my strength training for today.
• I was sitting on the couch with Calvin and noticed a small suspicious bug scaling his cheek toward his hairline. It was a tick. Ewww. That's only the second one I've seen in my life (kind of shocking given my trail-wandering ways).
• I went to work this evening and was ready to find a parking space at a meter like I always do, when I discovered a driveway that led to free parking in the back of my building. Six months of quarters down the drain; I'm ready to pull a Cool Hand Luke on those meters.
• Our internet went out today for the first time since we've had service. Peter tried to fix it and failed, I fixed it (that's just a little rubbing in for him).

And there you have it, even a normal day has randomness if you look for it.

Toddler Dreams

Calvin just came up to me and said,

"Guess what mommy? Last night I had a dream that I was jumping on my friend's trampoline and I jumped so high that I landed on a cloud and ate holes in it (he later told me it tasted like cotton candy) and there was also an apple tree there and I ate a red apple and it was so delicious, but I didn't throw it in the sun."

So now you know what 2 year-olds dream about. I tried to record a version of it (despite Bryn leaping in front of him constantly).
sometimes the blogger video doesn't work, but it's higher quality, so try it first and if it doesn't work you can try this one:

Don't blink

a few hours old...

43,829 hours old

Easy Button

With all the sugary loot we hauled in last week, there has been a lot of talk about how eating too much candy can lead to stomach aches and tooth decay (oh how I wish I could heed my own advice).

I thought I had Calvin convinced to walk the ways of moderation, when tonight he suddenly announced with all of his two year-old wisdom, "If my teeth get decayed, I will just push this button (his nose) and they will be all fixed." Then he asked for more candy.

Another Shelob glamour shot and a fun story

Okay, I know most of you are completely grossed out by the spider pics. But see, my dad and I have this thing about photographing cool bugs and spiders (like this one with babies on it's back), and this perspective photo is for him. So stop reading now if you're squeamish, and for heaven's sake, don't click on any of the links.

Fun story: One time when we were home visiting, he found a really cool cat spider and we had a little photo shoot in the kitchen, and then he took it to the very backyard to release it, and came back inside. We made jokes about it following him home.

Sure enough, few seconds later I actually found it climbing on his collar up to his neck. We frantically flicked it off and threw it back outside. The hair still stands up on the back of my neck when I think about it.