Pirates

Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate, after all.

~ Johnny Depp

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Last night Elizabeth made her debut as a pirate in the Fellows Elementary production of "Pirates of Penzance." It was the first time I had seen the production. There are some elements that were a little alarming (portrayal of law enforcement, the father giving away the daughters theme, etc.), but I guess that's the way the theatre is.

What I failed to remember is that I don't like the sound of children singing. Other than that, it was good.

Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean served as E's inspiration. Here you can see Chris helping prep her:

Elizabeth: So... you're freaking me out a little coming at my eyeball with a pencil!

Elizabeth was excited to get a tooth blacked out, but she said it was a little gross because it "flaked off after a while."

Beauty

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it."

~ Confucius

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Chris: What was I saying?

Elizabeth: How beautiful I am.

Chris: How beautiful you are?

Elizabeth: Yes. I meant to say nice, but it came out beautiful.

COLD

I like these cold, gray, winter days.

Days like these let you savor a bad mood.

~ Bill Watterson

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So, I have a colleague at work who is always cold. ALWAYS. Today I told her that sitting in her office is like visiting the Botanical Center in Des Moines. She said she was still cold.

I went online to try and find something to help her with her situation. This is what I came up with:

I tried convincing some other people to go in together to buy this for her. I said that it costs about $12,000, so it would be $4000 a piece and I'd cover shipping and handling. I haven't gotten a check yet, though.

I also suggested that wearing this would mandate typing by forehead. I suggested she consult with some people she knows who are always banging their heads against things.

Final observation for this blog... why is the guy barefoot? If he's that cold, he could at least have some socks on.

Character

While I relish our warm months,

winter forms our character and brings out our best.

~ Tom Allen

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We were watching the opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics the other night. They were talking about an athlete who had gone from boarding school to Dartmouth to the Olympics.

Elizabeth: That's amazing that he could come up from that.

Me: Uh, Elizabeth... Boarding school is different from reform school.

Elizabeth: Oh, I thought they were the same.

Meaning

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

~ Maya Angelou

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Yesterday (Valentine's Day), Chris and the girls and I were driving and "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga came on the radio. We stopped for gas and Chris said, "When I get back from paying, I want each of you to explain to me what that song means to you."

While Chris was gone, I told Maddie and Elizabeth what I thought they should say.

Chris came back and I said, "I don't know what the words mean, I just like the music."

Elizabeth said, "It's bad and offenseive to me."

Maddie said, "It's about unattached relationships."

Chris about had a meltdown and was going to grill Maddie about "unattached relationships." I admitted I told them what to say.

Other than that, it was a pretty nice Valentine's Day.

Gate

A gentle word opens an iron gate.

~ Bulgarian Proverb

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When I was a kid my parents had to use wire and stuff to chain up a gate on our backyard so that I wouldn't escape. One day, my mom was at the door when the garbage man came to get our garbage can from the back yard (apparently they used to do that). Before she could come outside, I had untangled the wire and let him in.

After that, I think they put a chain and a padlock on the gate. We didn't use the gate for years after that.

Then one day my brother Erik was playing by that gate and rattled it around. A swarm of wasps came out and stung him all over his face.

I have no idea what the moral of that story is. Here are a few possibilities:

* Trap the child and it will come back to punish another child.

* Locked gates and wasps' nests are the scourge of the future.

* What protects one day will cause downfall.

* If you're going to try and lock your kids up, do it inside so that they don't get a face full of wasp stings.

Architecture

But I absolutely believe that architecture is a social activity that has to do with some sort of communication or places of interaction, and that to change the environment is to change behaviour.

~ Thom Mayne

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If I were starting college today as a new student, I would study architecture. I never considered it until I was in my master's program. I wish I had.

I don't try to pressure the girls into any certain careers, but I have encouraged Maddie's interest in architecture. I assume she will do something art-related, so why not ARchitecTure?

Anyway, I also encourage the girls to think practically about their career choices. If they want to fly first class every time they travel, they need to choose a career that can support that.

Last summer, Maddie and I were shopping and she made the following observation while looking at tank tops in some store:

"I can't wait until I'm an architect and can afford - like - four of those a day and still have money left over!"

Meltdowns

To take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out

this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.

~ Susan Sontag

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Elizabeth cries every day. Usually at bedtime. Often at other times - like when she's hungry. When she is tired or hungry she gets MEAN. I refer to those times as "Elizabethan Meltdowns."

Carts

Wisdom and virtue are like the two wheels of a cart.

~ Japanese Proverb

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When I was a kid and I'd be drifting off to sleep, I'd just be starting to dream that I was on my back on one of those cart things that slides under a car so a mechanic can look at it? Then, just as I started moving, I'd roll off the cart. This caused me to jolt myself awake.

It still happens sometimes, but not too often.

I've never even used one of those mechanic cart things, though. I wonder why that was the thing I always rolled off of.

Walk

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

~ Buddha

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Ripley knows several words - out, food, NO, bad dog, go, sit, down, stay, speak... But his favorite word is definitely WALK. He, like probably most dogs, is a creature of habit and could go on the same walk every day for the rest of his life and be quite satisfied with it. Checking out who has been there, peed there, is currently there -- these are rewarding things for him.

I wish I could find so much satisfaction walking in my neighborhood. However, if I consistently discovered that my neighbors were peeing on my tree or in my yard, I would be very displeased.

Privacy

Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.

~ Margaret Cho

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I guess just because a town is small, it doesn't mean you know everyone in it or everything about it.

A case in point: J.D. Salinger died this week. I read in the paper that he was very reclusive. He died at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. I lived in / near Cornish, NH for several months. The claims about his reclusivity must have been true. I don't remember ever seeing him around.

Sand

Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.

~ Thomas Jones

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Once upon a time we had our friend Cristina babysit for the girls. Elizabeth was a terror that day. She jumped on the furniture and wouldn't listen to Cristina. When she started messing with a little zen garden we had, Cristina told her ot leave it alone. Instead of doing what she was told, Elizabeth took a handful of the sand and put it in her mouth. Thankfully, Cristina reported the incident.

Chris reprimanded Elizabeth and told her she had to apologize to Cristina for the way she behaved. She told Elizabeth to practice before they went to see Cristina. I played the role of Cristina. Elizabeth said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for putting sand in my mouth." For some reason, I got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing.

At that point, I was no longer allowed to assist with the reprimand.

Storytelling

"If you're at a party, and you say to somebody, 'Isn't it hot outside?' then how interesting are you? But if you say, 'Sit down, I'm going to tell you a story that'll knock your socks off,'

they'll never forget you."

~ Liz Smith

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So, Bella hit me in the head with her lunchbox. But it's actually not a lunchbox, it's a wine cooler. She just uses it for a lunchbox and calls it a lunchbox. We all know it's a wine cooler, though.

Anyway, she got yellow carded.

Travel

It is better to travel well than to arrive.

~ Buddha

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I like roadtrips. I like to travel with the girls -- when we're properly prepared with distractions. One game I made up is an international version of "The Quiet Game." When things get too loud, one of us yells out, "El Silencio - begin right now!!" And then we see who can stay quiet the longest.

Chris and I usually choose to lose so that we can have a conversation and actually hear one another, but it keeps the girls quiet for a little bit.

Thoughts

A library is thought in cold storage.

~ Herbert Samual

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Elizabeth: What if there wasn't a 1? Then there would be BIG change in numbers!! And 2 would become the new 1.

Elizabeth's thoughts never make it to cold storage.

Gifts

Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.

~ Pope John Paul II

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Above is one of the presents Maddie gave to Elizabeth for Christmas this year. I think it's awesome because it's much more like a gift E would have given Maddie. While she was repulsed initially, eventually Elizabeth discovered that the lollipop tasted like green apple. I don't think she's gotten through to the center, yet.

When we were discussing the holidays, I told Elizabeth she wasn't getting any gifts this year. I told her we would still wrap some packages for her, though.

Me: Would you like your nothing in a bag or a box?

Elizabeth: (not missing a beat) Box -- with a little bow on top.

Hair

(photo by Chris Fowler)

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

~Kahlil Gibran

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Maddie: Your hair smells like bacon! (Pause) That's not an insult. I bet the rest of you smells like bacon, too.

Homework

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

~ Maya Angelou

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Maddie: Okay, so my group got gonorrhea. Some other people got warts and stuff. I would have hated that.


NOTE: This is regarding homework.

Fog

Technology is so much fun, but we can drown in our technology.

The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

~ Daniel J. Boorstin

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Chris (driving): Holy fog, Batman!

Elizabeth: What does that mean? Is it like 'cause in the '40s and '50s they'd say "Batman" all the time?

Chris: Shut up.

Ideas

You'll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea.

~ Erin Nightingale

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Maddie: What can we do tonight?

Me: What do you want to do?

Maddie: I know! We can have some contests. Like on America's Funniest Home Videos these guys tried to see who could drink the most soy sauce. I could win that. Or steak sauce. I could do that, too. (thinking pause) Or we could just watch American's Funniest Home Videos. I like that show.

Self-Sufficiency

The dog's kennel is not the place to keep a sausage.

~DanishProverb

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While Ripley is a fairly patient dog (as exemplified above), he also is able and willing to help himself when he wants to. An example would be this week when Ripley found a can of SPAM in our office (why we have cans of SPAM in the office is another story for another blog). Somehow he opened it and crushed the can enough to get the SPAM out and ate it.

The office is also where Ripley's bed is, so the above proverb is very appropriate.

How he did it all without cutting himself, we aren't sure.

I guess it didn't do him too much harm, though. After all, what is SPAM? Pork shoulder and ham.

Survival

Education is a precondition to survival in America today.

~ Marian Wright Edelman

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In the fall, Elizabeth's 5th grade class was struck by H1N1. By the end of the week, out of 23 kids, 18 kids AND the teacher were out sick. Elizabeth summarizes it in reference to her friend Anna in this way, "Anna was one of the survivors. We call them survivors if they made it through the week."

Education

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

~ Albert Einstein

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My advice to Elizabeth when dropping her off at school has always been, "Don't let natural selection get you." It has worked so far.

Lights

You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.

~ Arlo Guthrie

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When the girls were little, I used to say, "Hey -- look at the Christmas lights!" when there weren't any Christmas lights up. They would look. As they turned their heads I would say, "Oh, no! They burned out!"

Children are fun.

Blogtography

No matter how advanced your camera, you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want.

~ Ken Rockwell

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I worry about what will happen if Elizabeth creates a blog. I'm sure it will be interesting and artistic and funny and insightful.

Or maybe she doesn't realize how interesting her observations are. If she does, my blog may become obsolete.

Stress

An increasing number of Japanese are seeking to heal their weariness in this stressful society. But we also need to consider the dogs. How can you say they never feel stressed in the society their owners see as being stressful?

~ Shinobu Ishimura

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Today I went to the dentist. He asked if I was having any problems and I said I had one tooth in the back that was hurting a little. They took an x-ray and he said it didn't look like anything was wrong with it. He asked if I was grinding my teeth or experiencing more stress than usual. I responded, "No. Not more than usual."

I probably need to take the dog for more walks. I think that might make my tooth hurt less. I may want to wait until the temperature gets above zero, though. Otherwise, I won't know if my tooth hurts because of the cold, the stress, or an actual tooth issue.

Appliances

I want to get a job as someone who names kitchen appliances. Toaster, refrigerator, blender... All you do is say what the shit does and add "er." I want to work for the Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute. Hey, what does that do? It keeps shit fresh. Well, that's a fresher... I'm going on break.

~ Mitch Hedberg

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Appliance issues run in my family. I remember once making chocolate chip cookies while my mom was on the phone. Somehow I got my hair caught in the mixer. Amazingly, I convinced my mom not to say anything to my aunt about it while she was talking to her on the phone.

My dad had an obsession with strange, little appliances. The weirdest one was the "in the eggshell egg beater." It was a wire on a motor. You poked the wire through the shell, turned it on for a few seconds and then when you turned it off and cracked the egg and it was already beaten. My dad insisted that it saved the time and water needed for washing a fork and bowl. Never mind the fact that the "in the eggshell egg beater" wasn't dishwasher safe and was hard to get clean and probably had salmonella on it because you couldn't get all of the egg off of it.

On the positive side, however, I did inherit from my father an uncanny ability to fix vacuum cleaners.

Fruit

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation,

so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.

~ Seneca

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Elizabeth (cleaning out her lunch box): Whew!! Cucumbers aren't supposed to smell like banana bread!

Holidays

Family isn't about who's blood you have. It's about who you care about.

~ Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, Ike's Wee Wee, 1998

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1. I don't usually put exactly where the quote is from, but I really wanted to include the title, "Ike's Wee Wee" in the blog.

2. Elizabeth is fixated on the idea of adopting a little boy and buying him a special sweater for Hanukkah. I am not sure how familiar she is with either the adoption process or the celebration of Hanukkah. I am sure she will do her research. She has already asked, "How old do you have to be to adopt a kid?" Concerning? Yes. But at least she's still asking and not just filling out paperwork without our knowledge.

Music

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
~ Charlie Parker

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I wake up with a song in my head every day. Sometimes I get busy and it slips away before I realize it's there. I've started posting the song in my head on my Facebook status. Annoying to some, I'm sure (but they don't have to read it if they don't want to).

Here is the list of songs that were in my head going back to September:

September
3rd - "Where Are You Tonight?" by Tom Johnston
10th - "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini
11th - "Please, Mister, Please" by Olivia Newton-John
12th - "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood
13th - "Domino" by Van Morrison
14th - "I'd Rather Ride Around with You" by Reba McEntire
18th - "Believe" by Cher
19th - "I've Got Two Eyes" from either Sesame Street or the Electric Company (can't remember which)
21st - "My Cheri Amor" by Stevie Wonder
23rd - "Six Feet from the Edge" by Creed
26th - "It's Gonna Be a Good Night" by the Black Eyed Peas"
27th - "The L & M Don't Stop Here Anymore" by Michelle Shocked
29th - "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone

October
2nd - "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
3rd - "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers
4th - "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" by Bobby Vee
6th - "Good to Me" by Halcyon
7th – “I'm Coming Home" by Daughtry
8th - "Pocket Full of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield
9th - "It's Magic" by Pilot
12th - "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" by Lenny Kravitz
13th - "Second Chance" by Shinedown
16th - "If Today was Your Last Day," by Nickelback
19th - "Fireflies" byOwl City
21st - "Someone Like You" by Boys Like Girls
22nd - "Not Meant to Be" by Theory of a Deadman
23rd - "Disturbia" by Rhianna
25th - Conga" by Miami Sound Machine
26th - "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz
27th - "I'm Not Gonna Write You A Love Song" by Sara Bareilles
28th - "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay
31st - "Jolene" by Dolly Parton

November
1st - "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica
3rd - "She's Got You" by Patsy Cline
4th - "Fallin' for You," by Colbie Caillat
5th - "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette
8th - "Crazy Train" by Ozzy
9th - "That's the Way Love Is" by Marvin Gaye
10th - "You're Always Welcome at Our House" by the Serendipity Singers (lyrics by Shel Silverstein)
11th - "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones (the 11th was a Wednesday)
12th - "Something More" by Sugarland
13th - "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5
14th - "When Something is Wrong with my Baby" by Sam and Dave (written by Isaac Hayes)
15th - "The Song that Goes Like This" by Sara Ramirez and Christopher Sieber
16th - "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson
17th - "Down" by Jay Sean (featuring Lil Wayne)
18th - "Benedictus" by Simon and Garfunkel
19th - "Forever Young" by Audra Mae & the Rangers
20th - "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa
21st - "Keep Your Hands to Yourself," by George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers
22nd – "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," by Connie Francis
23rd - "Sweet Dreams," by The Eurythmics
24th - "Son of a Sailor" by Jimmy Buffet
25th – “The Chicken Dance" Unsure of the artist.
26th - "Party in the USA," by Miley Cyrus
30th "Frosty the Snowman" by Jimmy Durante

December
1st - "Rock Me Like a Hurricane" by The Scorpions
2nd - The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly on the Plain" by Julie Andrews
4th - "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Pearl Bailey and Hot Lips Page
5th - "Three is a Magic Number" from Schoolhouse Rock
6th - "Watcha Say" be Jason DeRulo
7th - "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne
8th - "Time Don't Run Out on Me" by Anne Murray
10th - "Fireflies," by Owl City
11th - "Cold-Hearted Snake" by Paula Abdul
12th - "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard
13th - "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
14th - "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson
15th - "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga
16th - "C'Mon, C'Mon" by the Von Bondies
17th – “Falling for You" by Colbie Caillat
18th - "Get the Party Started" by P!nk
19th - "We Built this City" by Jefferson Starship
20th - "Winter Wonderland" by The Eurythmics
21st - "Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
22nd- “Battlefield” by Jordin Sparks

No idea what it all means except that you can tell when I've been listening to the radio with the girls and when I haven't. When I haven't I get random things in my head like stuff from Schoolhouse Rock, Sesame Street / Electric Company, or The Serendipity Singers.

Not a bad variety for a kid who grew up in a household listening to German and Irish drinking songs and '70s & '80s country music.

Winter

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adverstity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

~ Anne Bradstreet

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Elizabeth: Hey, Mom, did you lose a yak track?

Chris: No, I still have both of mine.

Elizabeth: Okay. Bella found one on campus, and she was walkin' around at school today wearing one yak track.

Gifts

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

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This is a perfect quote for this time of year. It also aligns nicely with my hatred of Jordan Creek Mall. I hate it more than other malls because the people who shop there appear to have more money (or appear to value the things that more money can provide) than those who shop at other malls.



I hate seeing people trying to "buy themselves happy."



As for the cat in the photo above... Well, she's just trying to construct a life that makes sense from things she finds around the house.

Mud

"The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful."

~ e. e. cummings

Today Emily and Chad's babies will finally arrive. I hope they have as much fun in the mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful world as Maddie and Elizabeth do (at least most of the time).

I also hope that Chad and Emily like linoleum and can afford to have it installed throughout the house. It makes the mud easier to tolerate.

Rabbits

We're always on the side of the animal that's being chased. We always seem to be on the side of the rabbit or the fox and not on the side of the hounds.

~ Norman Jewison

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I'm not on the side of the animal being chased if it is a mouse, a rat, an oppossum, or a burglar.

-----

Elizabeth built a rabbit hutch with my dad. I put a rabbit in the hutch and went inside and told her that a rabbit had gotten into the hutch she built. I acted all excited and told her to run outside and see.

She came outside. She saw.

She was unimpressed.

Streets

Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.

~ Naguib Mahfouz

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When I was a kid, I used to dream every winter about a world where all children would unite. In my dream world, all the children would organize to create more time for play and creativity and fun. "How would children do that?" you ask?

Every child, in every house in town would get a plastic gallon milk jug and fill it with water. They would go to the street in front of their house and dump the water on the street. The water in front of all the houses all across town would freeze. Then, school would be canceled because the roads would be too icy for the buses.

That was my dream.

Shopping

We're rapidly approaching a world comprised entirely of jail and shopping.

~ Doug Coupland

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I don't really like shopping. I don't like people that much. I don't like being asked if I need help - I prefer to ask if I need help not have it forced upon me. Most of all, though, I hate going places and seeing people trying to buy themselves happy. To me it's almost as depressing as the time I heard a woman in a casino say, "Mom, don't go losing all the money for the kids' birthday presents!"

But in the middle of the blizzard, if nothing else is open, there will always be someplace you can go to shop. Of course, if you're shopping for a snow shovel, ice remover, or a space heater, you'll be out of luck.

Paths

I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.

~ Dalai Lama

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Dear pedestrian in this photo... I know we got a lot of snow the night before this photo was taken, but if you're going to walk in the road, walk toward oncoming traffic and walk closer to the edge so cars don't smack into you.

Sometimes you need to worry less about the obstacles on the path in front of you than about the speeding cars (or hungry animals or angry villagers) coming up on you from behind.

Albums

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

~ Plato

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This photo reminds me of a 1970s record album cover. If I were writing this album, the title would be: "Sisters of Autumn."

Here are a few of the tracks that I would include:

* I Love Love and My Love Loves Me

* Don't Forget

* Sisters of Autumn (title track)

* Windy Chipmunk Heaven

* The Meadow Song

* Time Tells and Alarm Clock Bells

* Breezetime

* You're Amazingly Amazing

I would hope that K-Tel would distribute, but if not, I would try to work with some other label.

Dedication

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.

~ Vince Lombardi

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Elizabeth decided to try out for a role in "Pirates of Penzance." She ended up with the role of "pirate." My main hope is that she is not a method actor.

Home

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

~ Kahlil Gibran

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This image is on my facebook from when we moved into our house. The caption reads, "Some people wallpaper over light switches. Some people don't like that."

Anyway, my job offers me the chance to talk with and read many things from students and involving students. I was amused by something I re-read in going back through my notes recently. In the information a student discussed the "aggressive manor" in which s/he was confronted.

It made me realize how grateful I am not to live in an aggressive manor.

Tape

Duct tape is like the force. It has a dark side, a light side, and it holds the universe together.

~ Oprah Winfrey

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One thing I found as a hall director is that students like to be taped to the walls with duct tape.

A couple of suggestions, though:

1. Don't do this activity on a painted wall.

2. Don't let students put tape around the tapee's throat.

3. Wearing sweats or some other covering instead of taping bare skin is more comfortable for the tapee -- particularly when the activity is over and the tape is being removed.

Bowls

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.

Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

~ Lao Tzu

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This is a singing bowl that I have. I wanted one for a long time. You use the wooden thing (which probably has a name, but I call it "wooden thing") and when you stir it around the outside rim of the top of the bowl, the bowl's vibrations sing.

The purpose of the bowl is to clear away bad energy and to make spaces safer and cleaner and healthier. I have thought about bringing it into work or places where I'm doing projects to put good energy into the environment. And then I have imagined someone walking in on me and reporting me for using a singing bowl or being weirded out by the singing bowl.

I don't think our culture is really ready for 8th Century A.D. Tibetan technology.

Breakfast

Marriages are all happy.

It's having breakfast together that causes problems.

~ Irish Proverb

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The other day Maddie asked me what I eat on my poptarts. I was confused. I don't even really pop my poptarts, assuming that the pop comes from the fact that they pop out of the toaster. Anyway, I told her I didn't put anything on them. she pointed at the two poptarts in the photo. I thought they were Elizabeth's and she had created some special sugar-syrup for her poptarts (because that's the kind of thing that Elizabeth does). But, no. They were Chris' poptarts and had butter on them.

Maddie and I were both kind of grossed out.

Calendar

Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.

~ Charles Richards

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This is the calendar thing we do for the girls' grandparents every year. We put notes in th boxes or pieces of candy or whatever. I think this year we might put a live mouse in one of the boxes.

At least it's not like Brad's Advent Calendar. The ants hijacked it over Thanksgiving weekend. No chocolate for you, Brad! I bet it's karma because you're such a jerk.

(For those of you who don't know Brad, he's really not a jerk at all -- which is why this is funny. Though now that I've had to explain it, some of the humor has fallen away).