Thursday, 03 November 2011

Today I hosted yet another episode of Atheist Talk. Like the last time (way back in July), my guest was again my friend Ryan.

In part one of the show, guest Ryan provided an overview of the popular fantasy series Discworld, by British author Terry Pratchett. Ryan explained that in the Discworld universe, all the teachings of religions are real, leading to absurdities and difficulties on a scale most theists never consider. Ryan noted that it is Pratchett’s atheism that allows him to skewer and critique religious myths so artistically. Ryan recently represented Minnesota Atheists at the Discworld Convention in Madison, Wisconsin, where he delivered a presentation on the belief structures of Discworld and how this relates to our culture, so much of the material he discussed in this show was culled from that presentation.

Part two was originally slated to be a discussion of Jake Farr-Wharton’s book Letters to Christian Leaders, for which Ryan wrote a review . However, Ryan found the book so crass and poorly written that he instead used the book as an example of how not to  critique religious beliefs. Ryan’s review is hilarious – it’s almost (~99%) entirely negative. I’ll post a link to it once it appears online.

Friday, 04 November 2011

Today my company sponsored their yearly 6K event. I am always amazed at the fact that the first Friday in November always has great weather. Holding an outdoor event in early November seems like a risky endeavor here in Minnesota, but my employer lucks out every time (or maybe they have control over meteorological events; I don’t know).

With stop watch in tow, I positioned myself towards the front of the pack this year. I purposely waited behind the people wearing Boston Marathon shirts, while at the same time ensuring that I was far ahead of the people in blue jeans.

Once the signal was given to go, I began running and pressed the button on my stop watch. Stupidly, the watch was not set to the correct function, so I spent several seconds attempting to rectify the matter. Finally I got it working right, but then I spent the rest of the race knowing that the time was not accurate. As you may recall, last year I achieved my best time by about 80 seconds. After running about 75% of the way, I had to slow down and walk for a while. Last year, I ran for a longer fraction of the race, so I knew this would mean I would not achieve my best score, but at the moment, I was in so much pain that I had to slow up a bit. Then I did some mental calculations and realized that if I picked up the pace a little, I still might beat my time. I ran some more, then walked, then ran, then walked. Coming around the final corner, I estimated (recall that my stopwatch was not dead-on) that I still had three minutes left to make my best time. Without sprinting, I nonetheless trotted along sure and steady and finished with my best time ever. I’m not sure what my exact time was, but I believe I bested last year’s effort by a minute. Beating last year’s time was an unexpected occurrence; beating it by so much was completely surprising. Evidently, I just keep getting faster and stronger each year. By 2025, I will probably be winning this thing.

Tuesday, 01 November 2011

The day after Halloween is All Saints’ Day. I think, instead, it should be known as the Day of Copious Candy. Man, it was everywhere.

Leftover candy greeted me this morning, so I threw some in with my lunch to bring to work. At work, everyone was offering candy, starting with the woman who sits at the front desk. Another co-worker had an open bag of candy sitting right inside her cubicle with a sign on her white board that read “Free Candy! Help Yourself! Take as much as you want!”

Later, there were full-sized candy bars just sitting out for the taking. I, of course, helped myself to two packages of Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups.

I’m not eating all of this candy today, naturally. I’m attempting to be diligent by storing it up in my cube for when hunger ‘strikes.’

Wednesday, 02 November 2011

Today Isla went to Children’s Hospital for her surgery. I won’t go into too much detail; I’m sure my wife will post a more detailed and accurate synopsis at some point in the near future, but I’m pleased to report everything went well.

Isla had been well-prepped for the procedure by 1) the visit we paid to the hospital two weeks ago, 2) take home hospital supplies that took the scariness out of things like gloves, masks, and hair nets, and 3) a library copy of Franklin Goes to the Hospital.

Check-in went smoothly. During the time we had to wait until the procedure was set to begin, Isla had a fun time playing with the hospital’s toys, especially riding in a pushing the small cars. She made friends with another young girl (~2 years old) who was also awaiting surgery, and they played together for over an hour.

I accompanied Isla into the surgery room and held her in my arms while she was given anesthesia. When we first walked in the room, Isla looked around as if she recognized the hairnets from our pretend play and the machines from the Franklin book. She disliked having the mask placed in front of her face, but she didn’t freak out; she merely whined a little bit. While I continued to help her, the nurse say “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” and that’s as far as she got, because Isla was already asleep by that point. The nurse and the anesthesiologist assisted me in getting Isla onto the bed safely, and then I left the room.

We were told the procedure would take about 90 minutes. So, while I waited in the waiting room (I know, very appropriate), Jennifer and her mom went down to the cafeteria to purchase lunch for the three of us.

About midway through our meal, the doctor came out and told us that Isla’s bladder was in rougher shape than previously thought, but no worries. The procedure appeared to take care of the problem. He told us Isla was done with surgery and that we could go back and see her in a few minutes.

When we went back to the recovery room, I was pleased to a nurse holding Isla. I’m sure an older child would be fine laying in a bed, but I appreciated that they had the presence of mind to know a 15-month old would like to be held. Jennifer nursed Isla, and the staff continued to monitor her for another hour or so.

All in all, I was once again impressed with Children’s Hospital and I was glad all went so smoothly for Isla. She slept a lot this evening and went to bed very easily tonight. The prognosis seems positive; we go back for a check-up in about a month.

Sunday, 30 October 2011

In our quest to find an autumnal activity to do, we first ventured to Bittersweet Farm in Lake Elmo today. Turns out, the info we had regarding this fall-time attraction (which we obtained from THIS SITE) must’ve been outdated. There was just a private residence, with no one home, and a dilapidated barn with “Bittersweet” emblazoned on the front. Jennifer pulled out her iPhone and quickly found another option for us.

Minutes later, we pulled up to Ziertman’s Pumpkin Farm. Before we even got out of the car, Owen was disappointed. It was, again, just a private residence. They had a few wagons set up with pumpkins, gourds, corn, and honey for sale, and a few goats (or “puppies,” as Isla calls them) running around, but not much else. We convinced him to get out of the car anyway, with the promise that we’d look for yet another place.

As it turns out, I’m glad we visited Ziertman’s, and I plan to stop there every fall. As their website indicates, they do have excellent prices for fall produce. We bought more than we anticipated as the prices were so low: two large pumpkins, one medium-sized pumpkin, three small pumpkins, three gourds, two ears of corn, and two pounds of honey all for twenty bucks.

Trying to find something fun for Owen, we drove from Ziertman’s to the Country Sun Farm. This is one of those places that sort of nickel-and-dimes you, but we managed to find a few fun activities. Owen and I went through the corn maze, and both Owen and Isla had fun feeding the sheep and goats. We picked food up off the ground instead of spending money in the vending machines to buy food for their animals. (Incidentally, I would like to install vending machines in my home and have people come over and buy food out of the machines and then feed that food to me; I think it’s a great idea.) We had pop-corn and mini donuts, sat on tractors, and took lots of pictures. I think this finally gave Owen the taste of fall he was hoping for.

This evening, Owen and Jennifer carved out pumpkins for Halloween. I cleaned up around the yard, and was again greeted by our friend the snake—

Monday, 31 October 2011

For our first Halloween in our new home, Owen dressed as a Jedi and Isla dressed as a duck.

All four of us left the house together, but after realizing we were too neurotic to go around to the houses together, Jennifer went back home to pass out candy and I followed a bunch of other people around the block. I basically waited for them to blaze the trail for us; after they knocked on a door, Owen and Isla and I ran up to the door next. After a few houses, we found our stride and started to have a good time. We even went up to the local Catholic Church where a bunch of men, dressed as priests, helped celebrate this day devoted to Satan by passing out M&M’s. One priest held out a bowl and told Owen to take what he would like to take. Owen promptly grabbed about seven bags, and I then jumped in and told him to just take one. The priests laughed and said he could have as many as he wanted, so he ended up taking three bags.

Another home was all decked out with scary skeletons that popped up out of the lawn, chattering skulls, and dry ice. To my surprise, Owen wasn’t the least bit scared and the very friendly home owner dispensed liberal amounts of candy into Owen and Isla’s bags.

When we circled back around the block, we stopped back at home. Jennifer then went out with Owen and walked down the street. I stayed home with Isla and gave out candy to the many trick-or-treaters who came by. Within minutes, I easily surpassed the total number of trick-or-treaters I had ever passed out candy to. We even started running short of candy, so I ‘stole’ some candy from Isla (she had some lollipops and suckers that her mom and I wouldn’t let her eat anyway) to give to the kids.

All in all, a great evening. Now that we know the places and times to go, I am already looking forward to next year.