• Now that I’ve listened

    I could have waited to post this tomorrow. I should have waited to post this tomorrow. I can’t believe how much I’ve done today, and still posted several entries along the way. The amazing thing has been it all seemed relatively effortless (and for that line, my wife is going to smother me in my sleep). My energy level is really improving.

    Anyway, on with the post…

    I felt an obligation to admit to you I thought Dana Perino was being a pretty good sport on NPR this weekend. Well, maybe I don’t have to admit it, but I will anyway. I listened to the podcast during the mind numbing task I call “going through the mail” (at work). What, you call it that too?

    After listening to her appearance myself (I know – I’m breaking new ground for this site – commenting on stuff I’ve actually experienced first hand) I decided it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. Plus, with a little bit of time I’ve discovered a little bit of perspective. When you consider the other news lately: banging the drum for war in Persia (despite a few setbacks with little things I like to call “facts”) and the suspicious destruction of video torture evidence by the CIA; the issue of wether a White House Press Secretary can answer a multiple choice question about the Cold War seems a little insignificant.

    Yeah, you didn’t think I was really going to leave it at that did you?

    It seems insignificant unless you consider these are the people we must rely on to handle those larger issues. January 2009 seems like a long time from now. What’s really depressing is it seems immigration is shaping up to be the 2008 successor to gay marriage, the GOP contrived boogeyman to rally the worst impulses of the electorate in the next election cycle. I cringe inside every time I hear the word “immigration” on the news. It’s like a little piece of my optimism dies every time.

  • Someday he’ll stop saying that

    Beth is learning about electricity this week, along with some of the basic physics involved. So it looks like this week I’m teaching physics!

    If you’ve got a school aged child, you too may be familiar with the task of filling in the teaching gaps.

    We started out kind of backwards, because for some reason her assignment/textbook addressed conductors and resistors BEFORE it covered electrons. Makes perfect sense, right? This meant we discussed conductors, resistors and their kin over dinner prep; leaving electrons… and the basic anatomy of an atom for the dinner table.

    It’s funny how life works… my fate left to some textbook publisher.

    So we got to talking about electrons, and Cheryl made some comment about protons. “Yeah,” Beth said. “We talked about both of them in school today. They had these models of atoms, and they had little red balls for the electrons, and blue ones for the… what are they called again?”

    I replied, “Protons Beth, I’m pretty sure the blue balls were protons.”

    For some reason Adam, my three year old son, found this part of the conversation absolutely hilarious. He announced: “You’ve got blue balls dad!?!”

    I thought I was going to have to perform an emergency procedure on my wife. That kind of laughing can be dangerous at the dinner table.

    Now I just hope he doesn’t decide to bring it up at school tomorrow.

  • Climbing the ladder

    My boy Adam is a climber. The only think he likes better than climbing is leaping.

    We now pause this entry for a little reconsideration.

    On second thought, it’s hard to figure how much a boy likes to climb when he also likes to leap. Think about it.

    It’s getting to the point were I’m considering taking Adam’s craft table and chairs out of our family room. It’s a Superman table that sits about 30 inches off the ground… the perfect step stool to get up on the counter top in our family room (and a fitting theme for what he likes to do with it most… or off of it). The counter, sitting about 40 inches off the floor, is the perfect platform to get at our (formerly) child-proof shelves. Said shelves were the perfect place to put all those things we didn’t want a three year old boy to have: scissors, permanent markers, etc.

    The little stinker has figured out he can quietly close the family room door in order to mask the sound of his activities.