Colbert Nation

With our last night in Canada Maggie had a rough time going to bed. It was after 10:30pm and Maggie was tired. Laur grabbed Maggie to take her to bed and I turned on the TV to see when The Daily Show or The Colbert Report would be on. The Colbert Report was just starting. Maggie flipped her lid. Bad timing on my part.

Laura lay down with Maggie and tried to get her to sleep. After at least 10 minutes of wrestling with Maggie and all of her cries for "Show!", Laur gave Maggie to me. She and Chloe were going to work on going to bed instead.

Maggie sat quietly tucked under my arm on the couch and I turned the TV back on to watch the last 5 minutes of Colbert and the first 15 of The Daily Show. I don't know why she likes those shows, but she does. I watch them online some evenings at home. Maggie apparently enjoys watching people sit behind desks and talk about the rather informative fake news.

The last I looked at my watch it was 11:22pm, and Maggie and I were laying down on the bed together. Both of us were out basically until 7:30am, and after a bottle Maggie stayed in bed until after 9:00am.

It's silly that 20 minutes of fake news was enough to calm her down for the night. At the commercial break I turned off the TV and all she said was "all done". She's a nut.

Bad Dad

My wife does not think it's funny when i say that our newborn looks like Yoda when she purses her lips.

Oh well... Chloda

oG B0E

Books on Palm

I originally sent this out as a email to a bunch of friends in August of 2002, but was reminded of this while reading another book on my palm with plenty of errors.

---===---

so,

there is this program that converts a text file into a PDB file that i can read on my palm pilot. somewhere between the book getting scanned the first time into a computer text file and the final PDB, certain errors occur. for instance, occasionally the computer fuses something like "hut" and turns it into "but". or perhaps the word "in" is fused and appears as an "m". or maybe something will be split. "door" may end up as a "cloor". with that in mind, here is a sample sentence from Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Shadow".


"He looked down at his hands, nodded, then laid his head on his anus and sobbed."


aNUs has the same number of vertical lines as aRMs (in the lower case of course), but this by far has been the most disturbing off all of the errors i have encountered.

050404

End of the Holidays

Well, we're coming to the end of a good extended holiday. We've been in Canada for over two weeks. This was only our second trip to Canada for 2009, so we were excited to get our girls up here to show off to the family. It's been a good time.

Chloe is still a mama's girl, but she has learned that she can be content in the arms of lots of other people besides mama's.

Chloe has also been quite curious. She has enjoyed watching her cousins and they have captured her attention for extended periods of time. Chloe has rewarded their attention with plenty of smiles.

Chloe has become much more vocal on this trip. Not a lot of jabbering, but she has found a strong volume for her shouting and hollering. Her noise-making doesn't seem to be directed at anyone, she just has to make a ruckus now and then.

I will feel sad for Maggie when we go home. She is going to lose a lot being back home. Maggie has had so many cousins to play with. She has been put on center stage so often here. Besides all of the regular play time with cousins closer to her age, Maggie has had plenty of time to show off all of her signs. There have been a few times where nearly everyone in the room, adult and child, have watched Maggie show off her knowledge. It is especially fun to have Maggie show off with the alphabet or her signs for feelings. "SCARED!" She is such a smarty-pants, and loves to interact, smile and laugh. She is has been so good to play and explore, even if some of that exploration has given Laura and I a lot to pick up after.

Besides exploring and having people to play with, Maggie may have other hardships when we get home. Maggie and I have been slumber party buddies for these past 16+ days. We've even laid down together for a couple of naps. She's a little rough at times. I've had both headbutts and kicks to the face, and she wiggles ALL OVER the mattress in the night. Even with all of her rolling around, it has been fun to peek over in the middle of the night and see Maggie's sleeping face. I don't know how she'll adjust to the the confines of her crib, not to mention having to fall asleep on her own at home. I hope that the familiarity of Maggie's crib and room will make up for not having me and her mom put her to bed in such a one-on-one manner.

This family time is so good for the girls and for us. I am sure that both our babies have learned a lot, and had experiences that will benefit their little souls. I will be sad to leave for all of us. Not only will we have to make up for whatever our girls will miss not being here, I am also going to have a wife to tend through her mourning. We're not sure when our next visit to Canada will be, and Laura is always sad to leave. We at least know that Grandma and Grandpa will be visiting soon.

Economic stimulus package

To the Avocado Growers of the World:

I know that the economy is rough right now. The California farmers are feeling a particular squeeze on their finances. I am writing to let you know that my family is committed to buying at least one more avocado than we'll eat every time we buy avocados.

We like avocados. We eat avocados. We will continue to buy avocados, but somehow we mysteriously seem to count out one more than we can get to before that last fruit spoils.

We're just doing our part to support the economy.

Sincerely,
The Betts Family

()goZiB