Category: Miscellaneous
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Washer TV
It’s taken several long years to rationalize this purchase. I wanted an energy-efficient front-loader, but I just couldn’t make my peace with the extravagance. We have an exceptionally low pressure low flow water supply. We can barely have a shower — the flow through even the “pulse” setting on the showerhead is scarcely more than […]
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Favours
Recently the kids in this family have enjoyed having a little bit of cash on hand. Normally most of their net worth is recorded in ledgers, with which they track spending and savings trends, and from which it is easy for them to avail themselves of their parents’ plastic and electronic purchasing options. But “petty […]
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How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways, o iPad of mine. Kids’ violin lesson notes. Homeschooling report notes on the fly. Photo slide shows at information booths. Plants vs. Zombies played round-robin by the kids for six hours of amusement in the minivan. Episodes of awesome video series available instead of crappy TV in motels. StarWalk, an amazing star […]
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Convenience store quip
Have I mentioned lately how supremely flexible and wonderful the high school is about accommodating Erin’s music, travel and work-related learning? Well, yeah, they have been great. She can take Tuesday afternoons off for choir, and alternate Fridays and Mondays off for violin, and the latter three quarters of Wednesday off to work at her part-time […]
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Facebook
I surrendered to the world of Facebook about a year and a half ago. Mostly to keep track of what my elder kids were up to. I like it okay; some parts are great, some not so great. I do enjoy the little peeks into my kids’ thoughts and their writings. The whole family is […]
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Day off work
Erin’s day off work is laundry day for her work shirts. The place she works is great. It’s a little café / gallery / gift shop that has great food as well as great staff shirts. It’s at the T-intersection of the two secondary “highways” in town, and gets lots of tourist traffic. But it […]
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Trail ride
Who needs a Van de Graaff generator? This is Erin’s hair after (a) a short hard mountain-bike ride (b) a shower and (c) lying about in the sun on the static-electricity-generating trampoline for 45 minutes. She’s an awesome mountain-biking buddy. Enjoys going fast on the narrow single-track we’ve got around here. Has lots of stamina. […]
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Lawn boy
At home, where we have an acre of grass and a little Toro tractor, he does it as a ride-on deal. Fortunately for us he mows willingly and without pay, despite having to drive through the curtains of wee green worms dangling from the fruit trees. I think he mostly likes driving. In town, though, […]
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Eva
We’re getting some work done on the van this week. A lot of work, considering it’s a 2005 Toyota. Replacing one sliding door. Replacing the latch on another door. Doing the brakes, again. Pulling the whole front end apart to replace both hub joints or something. We’ll defer the catalytic converter replacement until next time. […]
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Hair off
Erin got her hair chopped off in January, sending eight thick hanks of 18-inch long hair off to Locks of Love. Recently Sophie decided she had finished her tenure as a long-haired kid. I wasn’t sure that she was sure about her decision, so I didn’t jump in right away to get her an appointment […]
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Twenty-one years old
This is probably the first significant item of real quality that I bought. Fresh out of my internship, I dropped a thousand dollars and change on a good road bike. This is a lesson in the wisdom of buying quality. My 21-year-old bike is still a wonderful machine. Today I started tuning it up. I […]
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Archived!
I write this blog for many reasons. Some are about the process, but several are also related to the product. The accumulated virtual scrapbook is an important memento of family activities, adventures, challenges and milestones. Important not just to me, and not just in a nostalgic way, but also to the kids and also in […]
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Hamlet
My four kids, and their friend Danika, after a music rehearsal held at the school last night. Listening to and/or participating in a dramatic reading of the last few scenes of Hamlet. Why? I don’t really know. But they seemed quite enraptured.
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A new malady
Sophie thinks it is silly that the common cold is called “a cold” when it isn’t caused by the cold weather, rather by the fact that in cold weather we all hang out inside with closed windows breathing each other’s germy air. She suggests it should instead be called “cabin fever.” Very apt, I say.
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On the couch
Many of you have asked how Sophie is doing. Things are pretty good. She’s still really tired, and still has some mild belly pain, but her fever has not returned and she’s now been off her antibiotics for five days. She’s spending much of the day on the couch, but her couch demeanor is much […]