Mischief Managed

Abby frequently makes good use of the bathroom stool to reach light switches and items on the counter. In the picture above, she's placed the stool on the couch and used it to step up on the couch cushion, which she's crushing with her weight. Oh, and that's a weird dress-up shirt, a floofy skirt, and a winter hat on her head. It was one of those "What's Abby doing? I can't hear her anymore" moments. At least it's all in the name of getting closer to Baby Jesus.

'Tis Winter

Just like that, 2 weeks went by. Here's what happened:

Went to Columbus and attended the OSU-Michigan game. Exciting. Hung out with lots of family.

Set up our Christmas tree (yes, a day before Thanksgiving). Fun for the girls (and the cats)

Had parking lot duty at church on Thanksgiving, which was a beautiful day. Met Deacon, Dan and Rebecca's enormous puppy.

Went to South Bend that weekend, strolled Notre Dame's campus, had fun with old friends, watched Notre Dame get pounded by USC (boo), and went to our old church.

GOT SNOWED ON. The semester is getting close to wrapping up, but winter didn't wait for the end of it, unfortunately. Lisa had a snow day last Friday and I cancelled my classes, so we all stayed home. I got out my 6 horsepower snowblower, which roared to life and cleared the driveway, while the girls played in the snow. Abby didn't last too long, but Annika stayed out for two hours sledding down our little hills. I look forward to taking her to a better hill someday.

Painted our bedroom. The snow day actually messed up our plans for this, but it turned out well when Mom and Dad came and helped on Saturday.

It kept snowing through yesterday (Monday) and I need to snowblow again. Only two more days of teaching for me, and then finals week is here. I'm counting down the number of drives I need to make to Big Rapids before I'm done until January.

Brithday News

Indeed, yesterday was my birthday (or, as us Dekker boys know it, "brithday" (thank you, Chris Buchholz)). It's good to be prime again (31). As birthdays go, it was ridiculously full: wake up; open a couple presents from my wife and girls; put everyone in the van; bring Abby to Diane's; go with Lisa and Annika to Lisa's ultrasound, where the gender of our third child is determined (more on that later); meet Diane at her Mom's house to pick up Abby; rush home; eat lunch; head up to Ferris; attend 2 meetings and finish preparing a calculus exam; proctor said exam to 145 students; create a grading rubric with the other calculus profs; get home right before 10pm; hug Mom, who is watching the girls since Lisa had conferences; eat chocolate angel strata; read a few pages in a book; go to sleep.

For the biggest news of the day: if you don't want to know the gender of our next child, do not read the rest of this post below. We only told a few people yesterday, and if this is the first you're hearing of it, I'm sorry, but I wanted to post this before I go away this weekend (and more on that later). So, here goes (SPOILER ALERT):

Our

next

child

will

be

a

um....

(last chance not to look!)



BOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOY!!!!!!!!!

It was quite obvious on the ultrasound, and I identified the appropriate part before the technician said anything. Annika was hoping for a boy and thus was quite pleased, as was everyone else that we told. And more importantly, HE looks completely healthy and well-nourished, so it was a great day babywise.

And tomorrow morning we leave for one of the biggest college football games ever: Michigan vs. Ohio State, #1 vs. #2 (that's a little bold, but maybe not - it's certainly one of the most-hyped regular season games of all time). I hope the game lives up to the hype. I'm not sure who I want to win, but it would be fun to run on the field if OSU prevails.

Go Bucks/Wolverines! (and go Irish, but they better just pound Army)

Halloween Postgame Show

Here are the girls, decked out for trick-or-treating. They were "ballerina ladybugs." Abby was unwilling to wear her pair of antenna. They had a good time at Calvin going through the apartments, and then we stopped by all the grandparents to get more candy. It was freezing cold - of course, it was 61 degrees at 10pm on October 30, and then a cold front came through the following day before we put them in tights and tutus. I think I've eaten more of their candy since that night, too.

Below is an old picture of them I found while going though some stuff on the computer today. Believe it or not, it was taken in June, when it was about 85 or 90 degrees out. They found the winter clothing and Annika even went so far as to change out of her shorts and T-shirt into long sleeves and pants. Then they went outside on the swingset. It didn't last too long, as Annika got plenty sweaty in no time.

Halloween's on the docket, baseball's not

What does a trick-or-treater and the skin of a hot dog have in common?

They're both hollow weiners.

Ha! I made that up myself back in college. I swear I've read it in print since then.

Tonight is a much-anticipated night (at least for Annika). The girls have matching lady-bug costumes. I'll try to put up a picture soon.

Well, the World Series ended sourly last Friday. It was pretty disappointing to watch the Tigers essentially give it away - 5 errors in 5 games by the pitchers. One of my colleagues mentioned that his TV was lucky that he wasn't wearing shoes when the 4th error occurred in game 4. Last year, when the Tigers were finishing up another losing season, I wondered whether I would get all wrapped up in a successful season or not, like I have recently with Notre Dame football and in hoping the Yankees would lose. Heck, the Tigers hadn't played a postseason game since I was in 6th grade. Despite the miserable conclusion to this season, I was glad that it hurt - I was disappointed and mad and somewhat crabby (just ask Lisa) when they just tanked in the last few games. Baseball is my favorite of the major sports, as it has been since 1st grade or so - I like the uniqueness of the ballparks, the history of the game, and the glut of statistics. I've always enjoyed chasing down a pop fly. That said, it bothers me (playing the Tigers or not) that the World Series champion barely won more than half of their regular season games. The Cardinals had the13th best record in baseball, but they made it to the playoffs and won the World Series. I know there are more important things to care about in the world, but...there it is. Play ball!

A Rock 'n Roll Education

Last night, somewhat bored, I put on some music in the basement, which, as it frequently does, inspired the girls to start dancing. Annika much prefers to dance with someone (me), holding hands and mostly jumping around the room. Abby was content to dance by herself, holding a Polly Pocket doll most of the time. Both girls like to watch their reflections on the dark TV screen. We also played steamroller during some of the songs. Abby wasn't quite so keen on getting steamrolled. Last night's playlist:

Roy Orbison - Oh Pretty Woman
The Beatles - Oh Darling, Hello Goodbye, and All You Need Is Love
The Traveling Wilbury's - Wilbury Twist
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (twice - Annika really liked that one) and Particle Man
Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Will Rock You (Abby started to get the lyrics to this one) and We Are the Champions
Fountains of Wayne - Mexican Wine (a perennial favorite) and Stacy's Mom

Annika went into ballerina mode during We Are the Champions, but it actually fits pretty well. I dipped her at the end of Istanbul, which she thought was great, so that's why we had to do it again. I do realize that it doesn't sound great that my 5-year-old likes a song called Mexican Wine, but...I don't have any good defense for it, either. It's a fun song.

Speaking of fun songs - the first few lines of the Wilbury Twist go as follows:

"Put your hand on your head (hand on your head)
Put your foot in the air (foot in the air)
Then you hop around the room (hop around the room)
In your underwear (in your underwear)"

Of course, Annika thinks this is hilarious, and every time I've played it I've had to stop her from following the directions word-for-word.

When it was all over, it was time for jammies. They were sweaty.

Miscellaneous October Items

First off - go Tigers! After assuming all was lost last Sunday, it was joy to see the party that was Comerica Park yesterday after the Tigers offed the Yankees, the most vile of all baseball teams. Last week it seemed like a nightmare for the Tigers to lose their division and end up facing the Yankees. However, I couldn't script anything better for the Tigers to dump the Evil Empire in Detroit and then watch the whole park celebrate. Here's hoping the next series goes this well...

Abby's speech and vocabulary continues to expand. She occasionally declares things to be "awesome," which comes from her sister's influence. The other day, while wearing a long-sleeve onesie and overalls, she also had on a dress-up skirt and two dress-up shirts, and then would throw her arms in the air and declare "Beautiful!"

Tonight Annika offered to pray before supper and promptly thanked God for skunks, tigers, birds, cats, dogs, horses, cows, and most of all, people. No mention of the scrambled eggs we were about to eat.

I missed some of the Tigers game the other day because the house three lots down from us had a fire in the basement, which brought around about nine firetrucks, water trucks, ambulances, and police cruisers, along with firefighters, many of which are volunteer. No one was hurt and the outside of the house shows little damage, but apparently it's not livable. Quite the excitement for Dairy Lane. I rode my bike over and watched for a little bit, and had a conversation with some neighbors that had recently put their dog down. I'm still not used to country-style animal care, which usually involves guns.

That's the latest here! Yeee-haaa!

Harvest Time

Our first successful foray into gardening is almost to a close - the zucchini, summer squash, green peppers, corn, lettuce, and cucumbers are long done, and we're just picking the last of the tomatoes now. The sunflowers did well, too. About half a dozen of them are taller than me. I'd say the tallest is about 7 feet tall. With the tomatoes we've already canned two batches each of salsa and pizza sauce, and there are more tomatoes waiting in the fridge to turn into some fresh spaghetti sauce. At left Abby helps pick tomatoes the other day, and up above Abby and Annika help make tomato sauce, in their pajamas, while sitting on the counter.

Meanwhile: the Tigers could clinch a playoff spot today, for the first time since 1987. Unfortunately, the Yankees and their $200 million payroll are looking really strong, and I could see them taking another World Series this year.

The Office premiere on Thursday was great. I love having that half hour of glee to look forward to once a week.

Oh, just stuff...

Life continues...

We're three weeks into school. Everything individually is fine, but altogether it's a pretty crazy life we're leading. Annika is doing well in kindergarten and liking it, Abby is enjoying daycare "Jenna's house!", my classes are going well, and Lisa is doing well as a pregnant special-ed teacher. She had a checkup a couple weeks ago, and all is well. They found a strong heartbeat, in the normal range for heartrate but slower than our girls were. So, is this a boy??? We'll see....!

My poor Irish got smoked by Michigan yesterday. I quit actively watching before halftime, and stopped altogether shortly into the 3rd quarter. I don't hate Michigan, but I did during the game. However, now I'm sort of hoping that U-M and Ohio State are both undefeated going into their matchup in November. I'll be at the game (yay for Nick and his grad student status at OSU!), and to see two undefeateds go head-to-head in their final regular season game would be great.

Tonight, while taking some cough medicine and looking at me, Annika asked "Dad, why do you have hair in your armpits." I explained that that's just how it works, and noted that I'm good at growing hair all over. "That's because you're a boy," said Annika, but then I mentioned that many women shave their legs and armpits just like I shave my cheeks. She just made a squeaky noise and gave me her "Whaaaat???" look. Aah, parenthood. Also, I'll admit that amidst the baby discussions we've had over the past month, on more than one occasion, she's asked "But how does the baby get in Mommy's tummy?", just as a logical extension of preceding questions. We've totally wimped out on answering that one so far.

Fall is coming...

I know it isn't even officially fall yet, but below is my seasonal beer display.

From left to right, we have Summit Oktoberfest, New Holland Ichabod Ale, Victory Festbier, Samuel Adams Octoberfest, Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale, Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest, Lakefront Pumpkin Lager Beer, and Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale. Yum yum!

We're right in my favorite time of the year, at least sportswise, climatewise, and foliagewise: cooler temps and full foliage on the trees and plants, and then college football and the NFL in addition to the pennant races and ultimately the playoffs in baseball. The food this time of year ain't bad either, although I think winter and summer have better seasonal brews.

Notre Dame vs. Penn State this Saturday! Go Tigers! I hate the Yankees!

The latest...

A vehicular change was made at our house recently, putting us among the ranks of minivan owners. It mostly took place this past week because our old Mazda 626 had some serious transmission issues so we opted to just change vehicles instead. In the picture above is our new Mazda MPV. So far so good.

Also, the looming faculty strike at Ferris was averted at the last minute, so we started classes yesterday (Monday the 28th). We sweated through a 2 hour meeting waiting for our bargaining team to return, and they finally showed with a tentative agreement. It was interesting to read about your job in the newspaper, although the University's statements about how they were "cooperative and serious" about negotiations over the summer were utter malarkey.

Five weeks until the playoffs start! Will the Tigers be there? And Notre Dame vs Georgia Tech this Saturday!

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!

I just attended my first very serious faculty union meeting, and someone actually said that. I was privileged enough to be part of an overwhelming vote to "authorize the negotiating team to call a strike if necessary." So, we're not on strike (yet), but we may well be as of next Sunday night. It's excruciating, as an individual taught to think logically and use reason, to endure the irrational, political mind-game that is the negotiating process. I'd much rather be thinking about and teaching mathematics than feeling disrespected (even though that's not a verb) by the administration.

Meanwhile, our 8-year-old Mazda 626 is having serious transmission issues, so we get to try and prepare for a new school year this week with one functioning vehicle and jobs that are both 35 minutes from home in opposite directions. It's not the best of my life right now.

It's hard for me to keep everything in perspective sometimes, because ultimately these are temporary problems that will be overcome, but I still hateithatehateit while it's going on. Ugh.

Lexington, Cincinnati, and Columbus

We're back from vacation number two! All three stops were scrumtrelescent:

Lexington: a great time with Dan and Rebecca, complete with lots of Kentuckyish stuff - a banjo played in church, a visit to a horse park (with equines of all types), country-fried steak, Kentucky bourbon barrel aged ale, and a street named Versailles that is pronounced Ver-sales. Oh, and chocolate angel strata for Dan's birthday.

Cincinnati: an especially good place for Annika and Abby, since we stayed with friends that have two girls the same ages as ours. Highlights: Coney Island (the largest pool I've ever seen and Annika's first trip down a water slide), the Cincinnati Zoo, a nearly shaved long-haired cat, and overall fine company.

Columbus: another good family time, along with North Market (featuring ice cream, salsa, and tabouli), swimming at Lifetime Fitness, playing at the park, drinking scotch ales, and seeing the mighty Ohio State Fair (featuring Annika's first solo roller coaster ride, the world's largest boot, a cow made of butter, a log-rolling dog, and general fair mania). Back at Nick and Beth's, Annika had lots of fun doing sit-down-stay tricks with Maeby.

We owe thanks to all those that we stayed with, and special thanks for putting up with the chaos generated by a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old.

All of a sudden the new school year is looming large. I'm hoping that the faculty at Ferris have a contract in two weeks so we can start the year with classes instead of a strike.

Hawai'i

We are back from Hawai'i, where we had a great time. It was fabulous just to spend time with each other, but to do so in Hawai'i was even better. We saw volcanic craters, coral reefs, pods of pilot whales, enormous canyons, sea turtles, lava tubes, huge banyan trees, and the spot where Indiana Jones swung on a vine into a river while escaping the Hovitos.

Rainbow falls in Hilo, on the big island.

A volcanic crater within a crater also on the big island. Hot and desolate up there.

We went to a luau on Maui and were treated to this rainbow.

The Na Pali coast, on Kauai.

Of course, pictures do no justice to the scenery there. I ate lots of seafood: lobster, crab, shrimp, grouper, swordfish, mahi mahi, and generic fried fish, and I even managed to try mussels, which were alright. I couldn't bring myself to try the oysters - you can see the different organs too clearly.

Once we got home I slayed (slew?) a vile demon that was consuming my soul - I repaired the PVC pipes laying underground in the drainfield of our septic system that were punctured or snapped when our neighbor kindly plowed our garden plot with a tractor. We weren't aware of what was lying beneath when we took him up on his generous offer, until weeks later there were puddles of sewage in the garden. Yuck. As far as I know, though, everything's fixed and working correctly. And we're moving our garden next year.

We're looking forward to Lexington-Cincinnati-Columbus next week. And once we get back, there are only two weeks until school starts!

Nothing like a weird coincidence

Anyone familiar with the show Scrubs knows that Dr. Cox nearly always calls J.D. by a girl's name and never uses the same one twice. While watching an episode from our Season 3 DVD the other night, Dr. Cox actually called J.D. "Annika" (although he pronounced it Anne-ica, not On-ica, in an Annika Sorenstam reference). But, amazingly enough, the next name he used, a few minutes later, was Abby. Weird. The name he used after Abby was Judy, but I don't really see us using that one if and when we have a third daughter.

I just checked, while writing this: the aforementioned episode actually aired before Abby was born, so maybe it was subliminal message to us to use Abby for daughter number 2.

Hawaii in 12 days!

A good summer nothing day

My summer teaching is done, finishing the day before gas hit $3.09, so I'm glad I'm not driving up to Big Rapids anymore. It was a fun six weeks. I enjoyed teaching calculus again.

Here's the kind of summer day I had, and it made me happy: slept until 8:30 and then helped Lisa get the girls ready for a play date at Long Lake near our house. While they were gone I picked up and vacuumed the basement, cleaned up the "cat room" (the basement bathroom where they have a litter box and where they eat, which sounds like a gross combo, but it's the biggest bathroom in the house), all whilst listening to U2 and R.E.M., loudly. When that was done I had leftovers for lunch, prepared the yard for mowing, randomly picked weeds out of the landscaping as I went around the house, mowed a little (with my new ear-protectors), and then helped get the girls into bed for naps after they came home. Then I put Miracle-Gro on some flowers, folded some laundry, took a short nap with Tate, read the newspaper, finished mowing after the girls woke-up, and then took a shower.

In the end, nothing special happened today, but I just got to be home and do stuff. No driving, no real obligations, and soon we're going to head to the Duimstra's for pizza. Yaa-HOOO-oo-OO!

Dancing, and weird garden problems

Annika's dance recital was last Saturday. The picture pretty much says it all.

In bizarre garden news:

First, the normal stuff: We are making a good effort, I think. Things are growing well, despite the fact that we've replaced some of the tomato plants twice after the cutworms ate them. We resorted to chemicals. In addition, we've put up strings to keep us and the girls from walking on the plants, we're watering well and Lisa's weeding frequently. Fortunately, we're pretty far from the woods, so we don't have many worries about critters getting in the garden. One of our neighbors has seen deer tracks in her garden.

Then the bizarre stuff: I came home today, and two neighbor girls met me in the garage, almost anxious to talk to me (which is not normal). They informed me that today we had cows - cows! - in our garden. COWS!! Sure enough, there were deep hoofprints all over the garden, and near the swingset. Somehow, they didn't do too much damage, although they apparently tried to eat some strawberries. There's a pasture with cows about a quarter mile from our house. They got out. I wish I could've seen it.

How do you prepare for cows in your garden?

A and A

Amazingly enough, the girls continue to grow. We had them in matching dresses last Sunday, but it was impossible to get them in a decent picture together, which is why there are two pictures here. Annika finished a great year of preschool and gets to be a kindergardener next year at Millbrook. Her dance recital is tonight, and maybe I'll get a picture up from that soon. It's nice to have some warm weather so the girls can play outside.
Speaking of the outdoors, here are the recent highlights: today Annika found a snapping turtle in the yard, about a foot or more long. There's a killdeer nest in our neighbor's garden that we keep tabs on. I saw a pileated woodpecker across the street for sure (it's bigger than a crow). Our garden is doing pretty well, although we already replaced the tomato plants once, and the second set aren't doing so well either (cutworms). Our sunflowers are sprouting like mad, as is the lettuce, whose seeds we got from Rebecca (thanks!). I planted almost 150 annuals last weekend, and put some zinnias around the house today. It's all good out there.

Deee-Troit Baaaaase-Ballllllll!!!!

1984 was a big year for me. I turned 9 that year, not long after my lil' brother Greg was born, but more importantly (sorry Greg), not long after the Detroit Tigers won the World Series. That's a real impressionable age, and that victory still stands as one of the most significant non-religious and non-family-related events of my life. I checked the box scores in the paper everyday, and Kirk Gibson was my favorite player.

Since then, the Tigers have only made the playoffs once, in 1987, and haven't had a winning record since 1993. BUT NOW, in 2006, after a quarter of the season has gone, the Tigers have the best record in baseball, at 31-14. Are they for real? We'll see! If the Tigers made the playoffs and the Yankees didn't, I couldn't be happier.

I'll be wearing my Tigers hat a bit more proudly this summer. If you see me wearing it, though, notice how grimy and gross it is - that's a result of wearing it a lot before this spring, even when Detroit was stinking up the ballpark. Go Tigers!

I'm a dork, but it's OK

Having reached the age of 30, I find myself enjoying things that sound sort of old and farty, like birdwatching and gardening (I'd like to call it landscaping, since that sounds more manly, but I mostly like the planting and nurturing part of it - what a sensitive nerd). It's like all my interests are maturing - I still enjoy a good rock 'n roll song, but from a more thoughtful and academic perspective. I never much cared for some music that had a history of popularity, from Guns n' Roses and Nirvana to Elton John and Billy Joel, but now I pretty well appreciate their greatness.

On the "birding" front: we have multiple bird feeders on our deck, each serving a particular purpose, and it has made our backyard a busy place. Here's the birds we've seen just in the last month or so:

Goldfinch
House Finch
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Cardinal
Mourning Dove
Baltimore Oriole
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Grackle
European Starling (dirty, pesty invasive species)
Chickadee
Tree Swallow
Canada Goose
Sandhill Crane (not at the feeders)
Robin
Cowbird
Chipping Sparrow
House Sparrow
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Red-Winged Blackbird (or as Annika used to say, the Bling-Bling Blackbird)
Killdeer
White-Crowned Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
Eastern Bluebird

There's probably a Wood Duck that lives across the street from us in a marshy area, and in our general area I've seen Blue Jays, Wild Turkeys, Great Blue Herons, Turkey Vultures, a small raptor that I think is a Northern Harrier, and Pheasants, along with common Mallard Ducks, Crows, and Seagulls (by the landfill). I thought I saw a Pileated Woodpecker across the street too, and my neighbor said he saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree in the same marshy area. The Dark-Eyed Juncos and the Tree Sparrows are only around during the winter.

So, not only do I enjoy it, but I document some of it like a junior ornithologist. Nerds 4evah!

Movie Reviews

Because you value my opinion (right?):

Lisa and I watched the Passion of the Christ last night. We borrowed it from our neighbors about a year ago, so it was time. Overall, very well done, but brutal to watch. Some strange stuff, though (spoilers ho!): Was Mary Magdalene the nearly-stoned prostitute? Satan's, um, baby? What? Did demon kids really chase Judas? In the end, these give me Harry Potter syndrome: after seeing a movie based on a book, I feel the need to read the book to see what "really" happened (and in the case of HP, to read the whole series again).

Other movies, in brief, from the last few months:

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - good weird fun. I do like Johnny Depp, even more so knowing that he can do Willy Wonka and Cap'n Jack Sparrow.

Emma - nice romantic comedy. Nothing super special, but well done.

John Q. - Again, nothing special, but it does make you think a little bit about our screwed-up health care system.

Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 - surprisingly, two very different movies, but both spectacular in their own ways. I think I prefer Volume 1. They just ooze with Quentin Tarantino style.

Ocean's 12 - alright already. Fine, but getting a little ridiculous with that many characters. I can't believe they're making Ocean's 13.

War of the Worlds - pretty good. As a father of daughters, I could feel myself getting anxious whenever Tom Cruise got separated from Dakota Fanning. The minivan-jacking scene is a good example, as Tom argues with the crowd while someone else gets in the driver's seat - my inner monologue was nothing but "Getyourdaughtergetyourdaughtergetyourdaughter."

That's all I can think of. Yay for May!

Birthday 5

As of last Friday, we are now the proud parents of a 5-year-old (and given that we'll hit our 10th anniversary this summer, we've now been married longer with kids than without). On Annika's birthday we went on a preschool field trip to the Critter Barn, where the kids got to pet and hold all sorts of animals. In the afternoon we spent some time on the playground at Millbrook, where the birthday girl grew a static afro on the slide (see below). It was a beautiful day, so we had some ice cream cones before heading home and opening presents, and then had McDonald's at the park for supper. Overall, she's had a wonderful birthday weekend, and it won't be over until next weekend when she has her "Fancy Nancy" birthday party with girls from school and church.

We had a wonderful Easter today. Annika danced in church and did great (she was the youngest one up there!). Grandma and Grandpa D and Greg and Katelyn came to see her. Abby had a typical pretty 21-month-old day, although it did feature more pastel M & M's than normal (and she thanks Grandma D for them).

My Expensive Beer

On Saturday I went to one of the mot wonderful places in West Michigan - Siciliano's Market, which has the best selection of good beer, home-brewing supplies, cigars, pipe tobacco, tea, etc. I was there with brother Greg and together we bought a case of beer. One beer I didn't see there was Founder's Breakfast Stout, which is an inky blank, thick brew that features the flavors of oatmeal, coffee, and chocolate, among other things. Also not present was Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which is very similar to the regular version but aged in old Kentucky bourbon barrels for even more flavor. The local beer scene is currently abuzz about this concoction. However, I forgot to mention the 56 bottles that I returned when paying for our beer, so I didn't get my deposit money and subsequently went back to get it. While there I happened to mention the KBS to one of the employees, and she said they had it hiding in back to be sold only when customers request it, or else it would be gone in a flash. After deciding not to get a bottle, I changed my mind, and bought one, setting a new personal record for most expensive bottle of beer I've ever purchased: $4.49 (for one bottle!). That's not much for the hardcore beer fan, but it is for me. It better be good.

The Aerobie Throw

On Saturday Mom, Dad, Greg and Katelyn came up to our house for supper. It was sunny, 60+ degrees, and windy that day, and Annika was out earlier throwing my two Aerobies around (those rings made of plastic that fly really far). Later, while the ladies were shopping, the rest of us were outside again. Dad was pushing the girls on the swings while Greg and I threw the big pink Aerobie around. At one point it went off course and landed by the swingset, and Dad casually tossed it back to Greg. The wind caught it and it eventually stopped moving in our neighbors' neighbors' yard. Greg tracked it down and then gave it a moderate toss. It caught the wind just right, flew straight and true, and I nearly caught it, but it went really far. As a quantitative kind of guy, I really wondered how far it had gone. So...I went to globexplorer.com and found the overhead satellite shot of our neighborhood. Knowing the dimensions of our lot, I established a scale for the photo and then measured the length of Greg's throw. The result: approximately 400 feet. That's a long way. The world record, on the other hand, is 406 meters.

All the news that's fit to blog.

Here is some stuff that has happened:

On New Year's Eve we ordered a kitchen table and chairs from Bears in the Woods, an Amish-made furniture store that is very near our house (unlike everything else in the world). It finally arrived and we love it. It's real wood, which is both cool and intimidating, since you don't want to ruin it. We also ordered three matching barstools and a corner hutch, but those aren't done yet, and we don't know when they'll be done.

Yesterday I received official notice from the College of Arts and Sciences at Ferris State that I will receive the promotion I applied for before Christmas. Therefore, this fall I will be an Associate Professor of Mathematics, rather than an Assistant Prof of Math. My astute brother Nicholas pointed out long ago that if I got promoted everyone could call me "Ass Prof", but I would like to point out that being an Assistant Professor lends itself to the same moniker, so everyone could have (or maybe has) been calling me that for three years already.

The feline update: Tate is getting declawed tomorrow, Layla has recovered from her cold, and all the treatments for Marta's heart condition are either prohibitively expensive or stupidly impossible (a pill 3 times a day? ha!). She'll just have to live with it.

Annika's mealtime prayer goes this way: God is great, God is good, thank you for our food and bless Rainbow too, amen. Rainbow is a Betta (sp?) fish that we've had for months and that has been ignored for just as long. We came home today to find his tank knocked over and the water drained (thank you, kitties). We were gone for 11 hours, so who knows how long this fish was sucking air. And just when we thought it was all over, he flopped around a bit. After quickly filling his tank, all seems well, so he can live his neglected life longer.

Name this movie: "It's all illusory - it's ill, and it's for losers."

Heeeeeeeeerrrrrre's....Winter!

We were thoroughly abused by cold weather as of late. Last Thursday the snow/rain/sleet/hail/ice started to fall, and it coated everything around us with a nice layer of ice, which tore apart trees and knocked out power all over. We were only without electricity for about 24 hours (apparently we're on the same part of the power grid as the township offices, which helps), but it got mighty cold at night. I left the house Friday morning and it was 55 degrees in the house. As of Monday, some people were still without power. When the sun came out, it actually looked pretty cool outside, with every twig of every bush and tree looking like it was covered in glass. It's finally warming up some now.

Over the weekend the girls stayed at Lisa's parents, so we had a lovely good time: we had dinner at the Outback, saw the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, slept in, watched Wedding Crashers at home before noon, had dinner at Panera, went to a Griffins game, had drinks/appetizers/dessert at Friday's, slept in (Lisa until 10:40), and then went and picked up the girls. We could use a weekend like this once a month.

In cat news: Tate is healthy and very much a kitten (he insisted on sleeping next to me under the covers the other night when the power was out), Layla has a horrible cold and is on three medications, and apparently Marta has a heart murmur that is getting checked out via ultrasound today. Yikes.

Abby and Annika

Well, I can't resist any suggestion that I post pictures of my girls (thanks Rebecca), so here's a couple of recent ones. Annika is cuddling with Tate, one of the new cats. Abby's hair pretty much always looks like that. Not long ago we measured the two of them. Annika is 3' 7" (a tall hobbit) while Abby was 2'7".

Da Superbowl

Superbowl thoughts: the game itself was somewhat disappointing. I was only marginally rooting for the Seahawks, but some borderline penalty calls against Seattle essentially kept the game from being interesting. Oh well. The most fun was having a picnic on the floor with Annika and Abby toward the beginning of the game, and later on just sitting with Annika and watching halftime. She was asking questions about everything all night, mostly about why some commercials were funny (how do explain why the MacGyver ad is humorous?), but it was unending during halftime - "Do they like being in the tongue?" "Why is there smoke?" "Why do they have those lights?" but my favorite comment was just a statement: "He is an old man, but he can still sing!" Indeed, my insightful daughter.

And we're off, with a four-note theme...

That's a quote from Professor Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach), as he "concertcasts" Beethoven's 5th.

I don't know if this thing is going to go anywhere, but I've decided to follow the crowd and put some of my life up for all the world to see. Here goes...

I've adopted "blidablat" as an internet identity, out of the need for something that didn't end with an underscore and 3 digits. A blidablat is a couch-dwelling creature that occasionally emerged during the childhood I shared with my three younger brothers. It was contained by the three cushions of the couch propped vertically against the front, along with the back and arms of the couch. The blidiblat was basically defined by its appetite, as it devoured anything that was tossed into its enclosure. Inevitably, all the brothers involved in offering stuffed animal sacrifices to the blidablat were devoured as well.

Quickly, here's other stuff that has happened to me and my family in 2006:

Got sick. So did the rest of the family. For a long time. Everyone's on the way up now, though.

We adopted two cats from the Humane Society (it's always an adopt-one-get-one-free deal there). Layla is just over a year old, is small, and has a vicious cold right now. We have heard her sneeze upwards of 25 times in a row. She came with her name. Tate is about 4 months old, and was originally named Rexford. It took us about four days to name him, and went through many other potential names, including Pippin, Max, Mookie, J.D., Sky, and some offered by Annika: Oo-ah, Sheeree, Pep, and Workjob. We're all happy with Tate, and it's especially funny to hear Abby running around the house going "Taaaaaaate!". Marta, the existing cat, who is 8 years old, is . . . tolerating them.

Well, I hope someone reads this. With a link on our broswer to the blogs of other family members, we've enjoyed how quick and easy it is to check out what they're doing. It's amazing how tough it is to take the initiative and send out an email or call people just to talk about stuff. Obviously, this is ultra-impersonal, but it helps.