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.