Haircuts and Mike's Important Sports Opinions

Yesterday I got what is possibly the shortest haircut I've had in my life. The barber (in Big Rapids) cut it, but after I wanted it shorter and he thinned it out it was remarkable. I didn't really realize it until I got home. It's not quite a "Greg haircut" but it's short enough that I can't even part it. Plus, my cowlick is pretty obvious in front. Fortunately, Lisa said she liked it.

Other than that, we're mired in the worst sports time of the year - post Superbowl, pre March Madness. The NBA, the NHL, and college basketball are all in full swing, but in the NBA and NHL way too many teams make the playoffs, so I don't have any desire to watch anything until the postseason, and college basketball is all about the gigantic tournament - playing a slew of games just to see who gets into the tournament isn't terribly interesting either. Calvin-Hope basketball is always worth paying attention to, I suppose. Spring training is starting up, too, but the regular baseball season is what's more interesting. I didn't watch the Daytona 500, but I do wish that I'd seen the end. Anyway, here's looking forward to "Selection Sunday" and the chaos of a 65-team single elimination basketball tournament.

Cold Weather Update

Consider this a P.S. from my last entry:

Even though Annika has finally recovered, there's been no school Monday and Tuesday due to the cold. The past two days, around 7am, my thermometer (with the remote sensor on the north side of our house) has read -20 and -22. I don't know if the sensor is affected by wind, so there's part of me that doubts those temps a little bit, but I do know that I've never seen a temp that low on the thermometer before.

With all the illness and school and church cancellations, the girls haven't so much as been outside the house since last Wednesday. I'm supposed to take them and two cats to the vet this morning, though.

The Blizzard of 2007

Well, that's the heading I saw on the news this morning. We got lotsa snow the past few days, and the thermometer read -5 when we got up this morning. There were reports of at least half a dozen pileups on the highway involving 20 cars or more. Overall, the timing was pretty decent for us - a Saturday and Sunday, so work schedules weren't ruined and I didn't have to decide whether or not to take "the drive" up to Ferris. It does come on the heels of a week-long illness for Annika, who has finally gone back to normal today. She should be ready for school tomorrow. Lisa was home Thursday and I stayed home of Friday, so the girls haven't even gone outside since Wednesday. Neither has our minivan. We couldn't go sledding, but I am hoping for a good sledding opportunity before winter's over, since Annika is starting to enjoy it more this year.

Abby said "Holy cow" the other day, out of nowhere, and having indoctrinated her with Finding Nemo, has been saying "DoyaDoYaDOYA?" too. It's funny. Oh, and she likes to sort her food - see below. She does it with Froot Loops too.

Eames

I coveted last Saturday night. Lisa and I went to the Christian Learning Center auction at Calvin Christian Middle School, an event that I used to open up the school for back when it was at Seymour and I was a janitor there. We got a couple of kid-sized wooden lounge chairs, and I snagged a $25 Lowe's card for $20, but, to my mild disappointment, we didn't take home the most prized item of the night - a Herman Miller Eames Lounge and Ottoman.

Grandpa Ribbens used to have just such a chair, and I recall quite fondly sitting in it at their house on Lake Michigan. I remember that all the air in the cushion would woosh out when you sat on the ottoman. Then, Saturday night, among all the other items on stage, there sat a sparkling new Eames Chair. I looked it up on the evening's program and first mistook a different chair - item #21 - for the Eames. The supposed retail value of item #21 was $800. I mildly entertained myself with thoughts of bidding on it. However, when #21 came up, they rolled out a nice office chair, not the Eames. Going back to the list, I found the Eames, #73, with a retail value of ... $3995. It would have been incredibly irresponsible of me to bid on it, but Lisa said I could go for it. I set a limit around $700-$800 for myself, but when bidding started, the auctioneer went down to $500 to get the first bid, and in 15 seconds the bid jumped to $1000, so I never had a chance. A few minutes later, a half-nerdy guy and his wife in their 40s quietly stood there looking wealthy, made it suspenseful, and got my prize for $2300. Oh well. Maybe someday (or not).

January's Latest

Above, see Annika and Abby pouting together since I wasn't going to let them want any of the funny parts from Finding Nemo, like we did the night before.

Pretty soon after school started again in January, we made huge strides in potty-training Abby, with the help of our daycare provider, too. We're pretty much done with diapers, except at night, but even then she wakes up dry about half the time. It's hardly been perfected (three accidents before lunch today), but given that we weren't pushing it much before, she's doing great.

Annika's still doing well in kindergarten; Millbrook and Ferris are fine for Lisa and me, respectively.

No bites on the house this week. It's kind of weird to know this huge change is probably coming up before next fall, but we just don't know when for sure.

Just over two months until baby 3.

Lisa made some spectacular chocolate chip cookies the other day.

Abby finally seems to be healthy, after nearly two months of a cold, multiple doctor's visits and antibiotics, and then an eyelash stuck in her eye this past week that actually resulted in a trip to Urgent Care to get it out. Sheesh.

Mostly, life's just goin' on. And can't think of anything witty to end with.

House For Sale!

Here we are, bracing for another radical change in our lives - selling our house and moving further into Grand Rapids, to get Lisa and the girls (eventually "kids") significantly closer to school, hopefully before next fall (if not much earlier). I think it's a change that we will definitely benefit from, even though my drive to Ferris could be considerably longer, depending upon where we find a new home.

So, we've been cleaning up, doing projects that make us say "Well, we should have done that two years ago," purging our house of unwanted stuff (which feels good), and mentally prepping for the process of selling and moving.

Looking for a new house is more fun, and although we haven't gone to see anything yet (since our house needs to sell first) , it's been exciting to peruse the internet, especially when one location you're considering is the Greatest Zip Code of All Time, 49507.

If you're interested, here's our house listing online, which just went up yesterday:

http://public.grar.com/public/pubrecn.mac/start?MLS=G583541

The "realtor description" is a little cheesy, but I think the pictures turned out pretty nice. Our first showing is Saturday(!).

Inside Jokes

Aren't inside jokes great? They're very exclusionary, if that's a word, but ultra-fun nonetheless. Guys are particularly adept at it, especially with lines from movies. Annika and I have a set that are our own, albeit they're mostly lines spoken by Dory in Finding Nemo. At any time, feel free to brighten her day with lines like

"Are you my conscience?"
"Hey there grumpy gills"
"Mr. Bossy"
"Do ya? Do Ya? DO YA?" while getting increasingly closer to her face
"Dude? Duuu-uude? Hey, Dude!" (that's Crush, the sea turtle)

It's most funny when she brings them up out of nowhere at all. Lately, while driving in the car or sitting in the kitchen, Annika will say "Hey Dad - Nationwide is on your side" in a low, chanting voice, which of course comes from the Nationwide Insurance commercials.

In other news, the semester starts next week, Lisa and Annika have started school already, and we're into trimester number three of Operation: Dekker Male.