Thursday, 07 June 2012
I participated in another episode of Atheists Talk this evening. Usually when I do this show, I am the host, but today I was a guest. The topic was a discussion of the forthcoming book, Atheist Voices of Minnesota.
The three guests consisted of me, the head editor (Bill Lehto), and one of the authors. The host, George, asked questions, sometimes toward the group, and sometimes directed at a specific guest.
It was fun to discuss a book with which I’ve been so heavily involved. I’ve been on the show before to discuss books – lots of books. In fact, last year, I interviewed a librarian and she offered ten different books that serve as a great way to introduce young people to religion, and ten other books that are a great way to introduce people to science. I’ve also been on the other side, too: last year, George interviewed me about the book Disproving Christianity, for which I wrote a review.
But I’ve never talked about a book that involved me, before. It was pretty cool, actually, primarily because I knew the book so well. So, when George asked us if there were any essays that stood out as unique, I was able to -without any planning – immediately respond that there were two essays that come to mind, and then I gave the titles of those essays and discussed what I liked about them. (In fact, three essays came to mind, but I didn’t think it would sound fair if I extolled my wife’s essay as superb.)
Owen came with me and sat in the control room playing chess while I was on stage. Afterward, we had to stop to buy gas (because someone often likes to leave the car on empty), and so I bought Owen a treat as a way of saying ‘thanks for coming with me.’ He likes to buy those slushies and mix all the flavors together. I think he does this because it makes an already gross dessert even more nasty and he knows I won’t ask him to share.
Friday, 08 June 2012
Today was Owen’s last day of first grade.
As I’ve done on most Fridays, I picked him up after school. He and I said goodbye to his teacher and thanked her for her work. It might be the last time we see her, as she is switching to a different school this fall.
Usually, Owen and I head over to the corner drug store after school on Fridays, but today we went straight home to pick up Jennifer and Isla. Like last year, Owen got to pick where he wanted to go out for dinner, as kind of a celebration for finishing a year of school. Last year, he picked Chipotle. This year, he picked Buca, which was approximately five times the cost as last year. I hope this doesn’t indicate a trend.
Buca now has these signs that they set at your table. They say something like “Celebrating!” and if you are there to celebrate something, then you get one of these signs. Buca must be the place to celebrate stuff; the host even asks people that as they walk in the door: “And what are we celebrating today?” Owen gleefully announced it was the last day of school, and the host proclaimed this a worthy accomplishment to celebrate.
But they didn’t bring us a sign. So we asked. It was a big hit.
Saturday, 09 June 2012
I keep meaning to take pictures of Owen with the toys he’s made at Lowe’s during their Build and Grow events, and I just never get around to it. So, today, I’m making good on my self-promise.
The thing is, we were planning on going up to the cabin this weekend, but the meteorologist said the air would be hot and humid, and thunderstorms were projected. The cabin has no air conditioning, either, so it might not be comfortable sleeping. So, we stayed home, which is great by me, because we probably saved $50 worth of gas. Oh – and also we did some work on Isla’s room-to-be, our closet, and the downstairs bathroom.
Yeah, in fact, after nine months of relative inaction, Isla’s room has progressed immensely in the past week. Back on Wednesday, we finally sold two-thirds of the closet shelving in her room (hello, twelve hundred bucks, nice to see you!). More importantly, we moved all that shelving out of her room. Today, I took out these metal plates that were installed on the walls (to help stabilize the shelves), and Jennifer progressed on taping our closet. This is important, because our closet has, until this time, been Isla’s room. But now we’ve gotta suck it up and use our room’s original closet, so we need to finish mudding and taping the walls. This will then allow us to install shelving in there (and I plan to use shelving I removed from elsewhere in the house) and then Isla’s room won’t be a closet anymore.
Where was I? I think I got off the subject here. Oh, yes, here’s Owen with his apron on:
Notice the four circular decals he’s sporting from past events. The one in his hand is the latest edition, which hasn’t been ironed-on yet.
And here’s Owen with his five creations. He’s holding a “one” up behind the castle to denote that’s the first toy he constructed, and a “five” to show the latest one. From left to right, there’s a T. rex, an ice cream truck (with the decal in front), a chalkboard, a racecar, and the castle.