Here's one of the boys together:
Lars, taking a faceoff:
Ross, blocking a shot:
Also, a video clip (of course). Ross blocks a shot and a rebound! Not quite the NHL but we couldn't be more proud!27 February 2007
First Game
We are a hockey family (in case you hadn't noticed) and, as such, I'm proud to post pictures from the boys' first competitive hockey game! Their sweaters are missing the custom front logo, which will be added when they arrive:
Here's one of the boys together:
Lars, taking a faceoff:
Ross, blocking a shot:
Also, a video clip (of course). Ross blocks a shot and a rebound! Not quite the NHL but we couldn't be more proud!
Here's one of the boys together:
Lars, taking a faceoff:Ross, blocking a shot:Also, a video clip (of course). Ross blocks a shot and a rebound! Not quite the NHL but we couldn't be more proud!
26 February 2007
For OMSH
A week or so ago, OMSH posted a picture of a kitchen-tastrophe. Looking at the photo reminded me of a cupboard in the kitchen we had in our first house, which I happen to have a picture of (starring 15-month-old Ross):
We loved that cupboard (you could tell exactly what you had on hand and nothing was ever lost behind anything else...) but I'll leave it for you to determine if the doors really helped the kitchen-tastrophiness.
A year or so later, the pot shelves became much more interesting. Taking inventory with your little brother around can be maddening so why not tuck him safely into a pot? He'll even get in there on his own...all you need to do is get the lid on!
Best be quick about it, though...looks like he might suspect:
We loved that cupboard (you could tell exactly what you had on hand and nothing was ever lost behind anything else...) but I'll leave it for you to determine if the doors really helped the kitchen-tastrophiness.
A year or so later, the pot shelves became much more interesting. Taking inventory with your little brother around can be maddening so why not tuck him safely into a pot? He'll even get in there on his own...all you need to do is get the lid on!
Best be quick about it, though...looks like he might suspect:
23 February 2007
Tooth Fairy Q&A
Q. If your tooth comes out while you're having snack at school but you don't realize it until you're done with your cookie and you can't find the tooth (but the school nurse still gives you a little plastic tooth-chest), will the Tooth Fairy still show up? 
A. Yes. She still even leaves you money!
A2. She also visits your friend's house, even though he lost (and I do mean lost) his tooth in the hallway* and not during snack.
* Job I never really thought about as gruesome but now realize that it involves finding assorted lost teeth: School Custodian.
Q. What do you do when you're jealous of your brother getting money from the Tooth Fairy?
A. Yank out a tooth of your own*. For extra credit, select a tooth that does not have a replacement fully grown in behind it so that your loss will represent the first actual tooth gap in recent family history.
* It's a good thing he had a loose one started...he knows where we keep the pliers!
A. Yes. She still even leaves you money!A2. She also visits your friend's house, even though he lost (and I do mean lost) his tooth in the hallway* and not during snack.
* Job I never really thought about as gruesome but now realize that it involves finding assorted lost teeth: School Custodian.
Q. What do you do when you're jealous of your brother getting money from the Tooth Fairy?A. Yank out a tooth of your own*. For extra credit, select a tooth that does not have a replacement fully grown in behind it so that your loss will represent the first actual tooth gap in recent family history.
* It's a good thing he had a loose one started...he knows where we keep the pliers!16 February 2007
HAIKU! Gesundheit.
where are all the posts?
they are hiding over here:
check out our new site!
long weekend from school
we will take family trip
returning monday
they are hiding over here:
check out our new site!
long weekend from school
we will take family trip
returning monday
12 February 2007
Birthday Presents
"I've been wanting this FOR YEARS!" proclaims the newly six-year-old boy as he tears open a package containing some stuff none of us have previously heard of. My heart slows, ears pinned back, brain rapidly searching memory banks for historical information on the sort of damage the subject product might do. A few vague thoughts flash but no concrete facts come to mind.
"No Glue, No Mess!" promises the package (in hot pink type that stands out even against the fun, multi-colored, very wordy, packaging) and I begin to relax. Interested, I read about the different things contained in the kit and smiled at some of the things we might build. Little, of course, is all over with popular information: what the stuff can be shaped into, what it can be molded around, what might be stuck in it. He is vocally planning to subject Glubby to a molding session when I noticed the following, at the bottom of the box:
Caution: Product may stain or adhere to fabrics and other surfaces. Avoid contact with eyes, hair, carpet, upholstery, wall, clothing, and varnished surfaces. To remove: scrape off excess and wash with detergent and hot water, repeat if necessary. Do not pre-treat stain or use chlorine, also dry cleaning will not remove stains.
No Mess!?! There is nothing in our house that is not eyes, hair, carpeted, upholstered, a wall, clothing, or varnished! I will need to make my child play with this stuff while naked, bald, and in a concrete cell! Naked, easy. Bald, no problem. Anyone got a concrete cell I can borrow?
"No Glue, No Mess!" promises the package (in hot pink type that stands out even against the fun, multi-colored, very wordy, packaging) and I begin to relax. Interested, I read about the different things contained in the kit and smiled at some of the things we might build. Little, of course, is all over with popular information: what the stuff can be shaped into, what it can be molded around, what might be stuck in it. He is vocally planning to subject Glubby to a molding session when I noticed the following, at the bottom of the box:
Caution: Product may stain or adhere to fabrics and other surfaces. Avoid contact with eyes, hair, carpet, upholstery, wall, clothing, and varnished surfaces. To remove: scrape off excess and wash with detergent and hot water, repeat if necessary. Do not pre-treat stain or use chlorine, also dry cleaning will not remove stains.
No Mess!?! There is nothing in our house that is not eyes, hair, carpeted, upholstered, a wall, clothing, or varnished! I will need to make my child play with this stuff while naked, bald, and in a concrete cell! Naked, easy. Bald, no problem. Anyone got a concrete cell I can borrow?
11 February 2007
Senior Year Soundrack
I'm taking part in the Senior Year Soundtrack, an effort to ease the boredom of Zube Girl, who's been restricted to bedrest due to a delicate pregnancy. From the challenge:
"There are certain songs that, as soon as I hear them, I’m instantly taken back to a very specific time and place. Driving with the windows down, age 16, never knowing what freedom and independence felt like until I was able to just get my damn self somewhere all own my own, thank you very much. Sitting with friends in a basement or a living room, sipping the beer we’d persuaded someone’s older brother to buy and trading gossip. Riding home in the middle of the night after a post-concert Vic & Bill’s run spent scarfing cheese fries and swapping hair and makeup tips with the drag queens from the club next door.
Somehow, while I was getting ready this morning, five or six of these songs played in a row on my iPod and I started wondering what songs did this same little time travel number on other people. My accidental playlist happened to place me squarely in the middle of my senior year in high school. 1994-95. So from this and a few conversations with Zube Girl sprang forth the idea for “Senior Year Soundtrack.” What are your senior year songs? Are they from high school or college? What are the stories behind them? And most of all…could you be persuaded to share them with the internet?"
So...could I be persuaded to share my senior year soundtrack? Having graduated in the '80s? When music was...well, I'm not sure what music was doing in the 80's. Despite this, I found a playlist I was willing to fess up to:
Aerosmith – Angel
Alphaville – Forever Young
Animotion – Obsession
Barenaked Ladies – The King of Bedside Manor
Billy Joel – This is the Time
Blotto – I Wanna Be a Lifeguard
Cowboy Junkies – Blue Moon Revisited
Cutting Crew – (I Just) Died In Your Arms
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
Duran Duran – Wild Boys
Genesis – Horizons
Heart – These Dreams
Howard Jones – Things Can Only Get Better
Kajagoogoo – Too Shy
Led Zepplin – Ozone Baby
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Jennifer She Said
OMD – If You Leave
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Me and My Friends
The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
The Style Council – You’re the Best Thing
Thompson Twins – Hold Me Now
U2 - With or Without You
So...what's your playlist?
"There are certain songs that, as soon as I hear them, I’m instantly taken back to a very specific time and place. Driving with the windows down, age 16, never knowing what freedom and independence felt like until I was able to just get my damn self somewhere all own my own, thank you very much. Sitting with friends in a basement or a living room, sipping the beer we’d persuaded someone’s older brother to buy and trading gossip. Riding home in the middle of the night after a post-concert Vic & Bill’s run spent scarfing cheese fries and swapping hair and makeup tips with the drag queens from the club next door.
Somehow, while I was getting ready this morning, five or six of these songs played in a row on my iPod and I started wondering what songs did this same little time travel number on other people. My accidental playlist happened to place me squarely in the middle of my senior year in high school. 1994-95. So from this and a few conversations with Zube Girl sprang forth the idea for “Senior Year Soundtrack.” What are your senior year songs? Are they from high school or college? What are the stories behind them? And most of all…could you be persuaded to share them with the internet?"
So...could I be persuaded to share my senior year soundtrack? Having graduated in the '80s? When music was...well, I'm not sure what music was doing in the 80's. Despite this, I found a playlist I was willing to fess up to:
Aerosmith – Angel
Alphaville – Forever Young
Animotion – Obsession
Barenaked Ladies – The King of Bedside Manor
Billy Joel – This is the Time
Blotto – I Wanna Be a Lifeguard
Cowboy Junkies – Blue Moon Revisited
Cutting Crew – (I Just) Died In Your Arms
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
Duran Duran – Wild Boys
Genesis – Horizons
Heart – These Dreams
Howard Jones – Things Can Only Get Better
Kajagoogoo – Too Shy
Led Zepplin – Ozone Baby
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Jennifer She Said
OMD – If You Leave
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Me and My Friends
The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
The Style Council – You’re the Best Thing
Thompson Twins – Hold Me Now
U2 - With or Without You
So...what's your playlist?
09 February 2007
School Birthday Haiku
three kids in class with
birthdays in February
one celebration
cupcakes, grapes, brownies
Jell-o jigglers, juice boxes
goody bags and games
half-hour frenzy
oh sugar, sugar, sugar!
all the children sing
home again, a call:
how could you bring EGGS to school?!?
without telling me!?!
no eggs in Jell-o
hypo-allergenic snack
and no eggs in juice
ms. egg allergy
we never found out her name
who the heck are you?
some other mother
(how could she!) baked cupcakes with
EGGS (gasp); so sorry
your kid, who's eight now?
knows she can't eat eggs and so...
she ate the Jell-o
one celebration
cupcakes, grapes, brownies
Jell-o jigglers, juice boxes
goody bags and games
half-hour frenzy
oh sugar, sugar, sugar!
all the children sing
home again, a call:
how could you bring EGGS to school?!?
without telling me!?!
no eggs in Jell-o
hypo-allergenic snack
and no eggs in juice
ms. egg allergy
we never found out her name
who the heck are you?
some other mother
(how could she!) baked cupcakes with
EGGS (gasp); so sorry
your kid, who's eight now?
knows she can't eat eggs and so...
she ate the Jell-o
05 February 2007
Stentorian Soliloquy
Ross, declaring to himself in an empty room: I have a choice; to give up my wife, or give up my duck. I choose.........the duck.
03 February 2007
Button Quest
Years ago, Fraukow gave me a long, green Loden wool coat from Austria that she wasn't using anymore. It was missing decorative buttons on the sleeve cuffs and has since lost one button at the bottom of the front placket but I love it and wear it all the time in winter - it's really warm and covers most of me. I don't mind the missing buttons, especially since I doubt anyone except me ever notices, but I've had an eye out over the years for replacements. I don't frequent sewing shops but I look every time I'm in one and I've never seen anything remotely close to the smooth, marbled green domes the coat came with.
At some point over the summer, it occurred to me that I enter and leave Manhattan via Penn Station - located in the heart of the NYC garment district - several times a week. If there are specialty button shops in the city, they're bound to be nearby, so I resolved to find replacement buttons to fix the coat this year. Here's where the fun starts. You can't match a custom button without having one along and I wasn't about to pull another one off so I figured I'd look for a shop the next time I wore the coat to town. But it hasn't been cold enough to require a full-length loden wool coat. It's barely been cold enough to need a coat at all. Then, FINALLY, it was a little cold (it was dark out when I got up but there might have been frost) and I wore the wool coat to town. I was fine at first but by 10:30am, I was cursing the weatherman and by noon I was carrying the coat. Still; had buttons, could match. I found a button shop and went in.
The first guy admired the buttons but said he had nothing close to their color and shape and suggested I try a shop about sixteen blocks away. I thanked him and headed out in the direction of his recommendation, hoping I'd run across a closer shop and, indeed, I did. The woman in shop #2 glared at me - apparently she doesn't like utilitarian buttons. Her stock is all decorative and small and she sent me off with instructions to check the same place as the first guy. By that point, I realized I wouldn't be able to get all the way to the other shop and still make my train, so I abandoned the effort. On my way over to Penn Station, I passed one more button place and stopped in quickly, only to find myself back on the street moments later with yet another instruction to go uptown.
Three strikes, three recommendations for the same competitor. They're either playing with me (like the waste disposal companies at home, which have seven distinct company listings in the phone book but all are answered by the same lady...) or that's the place to go. I stuck a note in my coat pocket with the address and headed home.
Weeks later, it was again cold enough to wear the coat and - even more surprising than the seasonal temperature - I finished early and had a bit of time to try the other shop. I sprinted uptown. Wow. Floor to ceiling buttons! Floor to very high ceiling buttons! Filling the whole shop! TONS of buttons. All colors, all sizes, all shapes! Except, of course, one to match exactly what I was looking for. Still, with so many choices, I had several that were close to choose from. I decided to stick with the color and compromise on the domed shape. I bought enough buttons to make a full replacement but will probably only put the flat ones on for the cuff buttons. I might or might not also stick a flat button at the bottom of the placket; I never button that button anyway, so I don't think it makes much difference.
Place your bets now for how long it will take me to install the new buttons! I got home and noticed the old buttons are not held on with standard thread...it's much thicker (but not as thick as yarn). So, a new quest begins - to find the right thread. Yes, I have realized that when I find the correct thread I should also get a matching needle. And yes, I am very tempted to wait until spring and make this all the problem of the tailor at my dry cleaner!
At some point over the summer, it occurred to me that I enter and leave Manhattan via Penn Station - located in the heart of the NYC garment district - several times a week. If there are specialty button shops in the city, they're bound to be nearby, so I resolved to find replacement buttons to fix the coat this year. Here's where the fun starts. You can't match a custom button without having one along and I wasn't about to pull another one off so I figured I'd look for a shop the next time I wore the coat to town. But it hasn't been cold enough to require a full-length loden wool coat. It's barely been cold enough to need a coat at all. Then, FINALLY, it was a little cold (it was dark out when I got up but there might have been frost) and I wore the wool coat to town. I was fine at first but by 10:30am, I was cursing the weatherman and by noon I was carrying the coat. Still; had buttons, could match. I found a button shop and went in.
The first guy admired the buttons but said he had nothing close to their color and shape and suggested I try a shop about sixteen blocks away. I thanked him and headed out in the direction of his recommendation, hoping I'd run across a closer shop and, indeed, I did. The woman in shop #2 glared at me - apparently she doesn't like utilitarian buttons. Her stock is all decorative and small and she sent me off with instructions to check the same place as the first guy. By that point, I realized I wouldn't be able to get all the way to the other shop and still make my train, so I abandoned the effort. On my way over to Penn Station, I passed one more button place and stopped in quickly, only to find myself back on the street moments later with yet another instruction to go uptown.
Three strikes, three recommendations for the same competitor. They're either playing with me (like the waste disposal companies at home, which have seven distinct company listings in the phone book but all are answered by the same lady...) or that's the place to go. I stuck a note in my coat pocket with the address and headed home.
Weeks later, it was again cold enough to wear the coat and - even more surprising than the seasonal temperature - I finished early and had a bit of time to try the other shop. I sprinted uptown. Wow. Floor to ceiling buttons! Floor to very high ceiling buttons! Filling the whole shop! TONS of buttons. All colors, all sizes, all shapes! Except, of course, one to match exactly what I was looking for. Still, with so many choices, I had several that were close to choose from. I decided to stick with the color and compromise on the domed shape. I bought enough buttons to make a full replacement but will probably only put the flat ones on for the cuff buttons. I might or might not also stick a flat button at the bottom of the placket; I never button that button anyway, so I don't think it makes much difference.
Place your bets now for how long it will take me to install the new buttons! I got home and noticed the old buttons are not held on with standard thread...it's much thicker (but not as thick as yarn). So, a new quest begins - to find the right thread. Yes, I have realized that when I find the correct thread I should also get a matching needle. And yes, I am very tempted to wait until spring and make this all the problem of the tailor at my dry cleaner!
02 February 2007
Happy Birthday Bug!
Eight years ago:
Seven years ago:
Six years ago:
Yes...they are watching the Sabres score!
Five years ago:
Four years ago:
Three years ago:
Two years ago:
One year ago:
Today!
Seven years ago:
Six years ago:
Yes...they are watching the Sabres score!
Five years ago:
Four years ago:
Three years ago:
Two years ago:
One year ago:
Today!
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