07 June 2010

Today I finished watching the movie The Naked Spur. I’ve been meaning to watch more westerns (there’s a serious lack of them on my list of watched movies), and so I put this one on my queue some time ago.  Despite its unfortunate title, I had high hopes: it stars both Jimmy Stewart and Janet Leigh, two people who, thanks to Alfred Hitchcock, star in some of my all-time favorite films.

It actually was a pretty decent movie. Stewart plays a lawman who’s on the trail of a murderer. He corners the ‘bad guy’ on a rocky outcrop, but can’t seem to scale the peak while dodging bullets. He recruits the assistance of an old down-on-his-luck prospector and, eventually, a discharged army officer. They do manage to capture the bad guy, who happens to be accompanied by Janet Leigh, but that’s just the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Suddenly, new information is revealed, and we see Stewart in a new light. It’s the remaining hour-plus that depicts the unraveling of the fivesomes relationships.

I watched about half of this movie last week, then finished it up today. I had the intervening few days to consider how I thought it was going to end. Do all five people make it safely back to town? Is the bad hanged for his crimes? I worked out how I thought the ending would proceed, and it turns out I was right on the money. Actually, I didn’t correctly predict the final minute of the movie, which I think was pretty lousy, actually. But I did correctly guess what would happen to all the players.

Anyway, it’s worth a watch. If you ever do see it, let me know. We’ll talk.

08 June 2010

Today my son graduated from preschool!

On the way to class, Owen asked us to play “It’s Alright to Cry” for him. After dropping him off at school at 9:00 this morning, Jennifer and I hung out in the area for a couple of hours, then returned at 11:00 for the ceremony. Owen was dressed in a cap (complete with tassel) and gown. He and his classmates were waiting out in the hall as the parents, siblings and others gathered in the classroom and sat on crazy-low chairs.

Once the music began playing, the students marched in and sat in a row of chairs facing the adults. Owen sat on the very left, nearest the teacher. She first welcomed us all, and thanked us for giving her the opportunity to teach the children and help prepare them for Kindergarten.

The kids sang four songs for the audience, which were titled (according to the program): “Slippery Fish,” “The Car Song,” “The Pumpkin Song,” and “Mr. Sun.” There were only four students at the graduation, so the songs were quiet, especially since Owen never opened his mouth the entire time. He did, however, perform all the gestures for each song.

After the performances, the teacher called each student up to receive their diploma. Owen was called first, and he hugged his teacher, then walked over and hugged the other teacher, then sat back in his chair. Once all the diplomas were passed out, the teacher announced that the students were now graduated, and she and the students said “let’s eat!” There was juice and delicious cookies for everyone. We took pictures and video.

Owen was privileged to have all three of his grandmas present: my mom, Jennifer’s mom, and Jennifer’s grandma all came. It’s a good thing, too, because we had plenty to carry out: besides the cameras and Owen’s cap, there were also a couple of art projects to take home, Owen’s name plate that had been on his locker, a large gift basket from the teacher (the basket was pink – how thoughtful of her!), a smaller gift package from the school, a framed picture of Owen in his cap and gown (that I assume the teacher took last week and then had framed and waiting for us), the diploma, the program, and a sheet with pictures of the students printed on it, that was signed by both of the teachers, and included this quote from Pooh’s Grand Adventures:

“After lots of adventures, Christopher Robin said to Pooh, ‘Always remember you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.'”

I will hang this up in Owen’s room, so he can remember his year and a half in that preschool and think about that quote. He made great strides in that class – a class where he didn’t even want to be dropped off at first, and that was so expensive we had to finagle a scholarship, and that we almost didn’t return to in September due to its location – and I am proud of him. It’s not often someone in our family graduates from something…so I’m glad we go this chance to celebrate this big accomplishment.

04 June 2010

So, for possibly the only time this year, I’ll be spending a long weekend outside the Twin Cities. Today, Jennifer, Owen, and I drove up to the town of Hinckley. We picked Jennifer’s mom up along the way, too.

We arrived in town a little too early to check into our hotel, so we stopped off at the local museum, The Great Hinckley Fire Museum. I had only a vague recollection of this bit of history before today, but it turns out that back in September 1894, after a summer of little rain and two decades of over-logging, a firestorm ripped through Hinckley and several other, smaller towns. The museum’s proprietor made a point of informing us that the fire on that day destroyed more acreage than other fires (such as last year’s blaze in California) that lasted for several weeks. The fire was so large that people in Wisconsin reported seeing it. The flames reached over four miles high (though I’m unsure how this was measured). Inside the fire was its own weather system, including tornadoes.

One bit of artwork at the museum was a relief of faces peaking out through the surface of water. I think the piece was titled “Surviving,” a reference to the face that many residents had to lie down in the shallow river for hours with only their nose and mouth peaking above the water in order to survive. The museum also displayed plenty of artifacts that survived the blaze, though many of them were forever changed, such as a block of printer’s letters that were now melted together.

Later, after we checked in to the hotel, we decided to go visit the obelisk and mass grave of the fire’s victims. I asked the woman at the front desk where the monument was, and she told me to just head east down the street, which, in retrospect, I should’ve known, since the street’s name was “Fire Monument Road.” So, we went there and wandered around, looking at the graves and reading the inscriptions. Owen asked a lot of questions.

05 June 2010

Today we celebrated Jennifer’s grandmother’s birthday. The rest of the family came to the hotel and, around 4:00, we ventured over to Grand Casino, where a sign welcomed me on behalf of the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe. I’m not a fan of casinos, but it didn’t really matter since our purpose in going there was to eat at the restaurant. The family was spread over two tables and Jennifer’s grandmother included among her celebrants her brother, her two nephews, three of her children, five of her grandchildren (one of them is Jennifer), and two of her great-grandchildren (one of them is Owen). Many of them have significant others (one of them is me), and so they were all there, too. She received many cards, a couple of gift a cake that read “happy birthday,” and a kiss from the busboy. I think she had a good time.

Me, I ate too much.

06 June 2010

Today started off in the hotel. The hotels rooms, I should mention, have beds that are a little on the small side. I mean, if you’re all alone, there’s plenty of room in the bed, but if there are more than three people staying in your room, then someone’s gotta share a bed, and there ain’t much room. On Friday night, Owen shared a bed with Jennifer, but last night, he slept in my bed. I didn’t get much sleep. I hate that realization when, after tossing and turning for about two hours, your realize that this is going to be “one of those nights.” It wasn’t totally Owen’s fault. I’ve slept just fine with him against me in the past (though now he’s bigger). But I couldn’t seem to get the sheets right – in fact, the sheet I was sleeping on ended about six inches before the mattress, meaning that my toenails caught on the fabric of the mattress a few times. The pillows were right, either. Plus, like I said, I ate too much last night, and even a quick foray into the casino’s bathroom to vomit some of it out didn’t seem to rid me of the weird tasting beer, the too-much-caffeine, and the red meat I’d consumed.

So, anyway, I probably got a total of three hours of sleep last night. We took in the continental breakfast (I went very easy on my stomach), Owen and I jumped in the pool for the third and final time, then we packed up and left.

I was looking forward to a relaxing evening today, and a good sleep tonight, but just as we got home, we realized we left Owen’s stuffed bear (“Hop-hop”) at the hotel. Why didn’t I realize this sooner! This bear was custom made by Owen at the Build-a-Bear Factory last year on his 4th birthday, and has become, in the 12 months since then, his most prized possession. The bear has really helps Owen with his imaginative play (something he never did before last year) and has been a mainstay of Owen’s bedtime routines.

I’m not sure how we forgot him. As my wife said, that bear is just something that’s always with us, so we just assume he always there, the same way you don’t contentiously think about grabbing your keys or your wallet. Hop-hop must’ve gotten hidden under the blankets during the night, and was out of sight at the time we were exiting the room for the last time.

We called the hotel in the hopes of locating Hop-hop and getting him sent home. The lady I spoke with found the bear, verified my address (a good thing, since she had the address wrong), and said he’d be sent out in the mail tomorrow.

Tonight, as I suspected, Owen was a little saddened by the absence of his favorite stuffed animal. When our intercom system buzzed (just some kids hitting it by accident or as a prank), Owen thought it was the mailman, making a special 9:30pm run to our apartment. Sorry, buddy, no such luck.

All in all, though, I think Owen handled the situation better than I did. We’ll be on the lookout for a friend to arrive via US postage later in the week…

03 Jun 2010

Had another busy day. Busy at work, even during lunch I ran a couple of errands.

This evening, I hosted another two episodes of Atheists Talk; this time I interviewed my friend Ryan. First, Ryan discussed some of his suggestions for “Summer Reading.” We talked about the book God, a book I hadn’t heard of before Ryan told me it was one of the books he wanted to talk about. It’s a pretty good choice for summer reading, actually, since it’s made up of many, many self-contained vignettes.  The other books, featuring a trilogy of fiction, a book titled Doubt, and a difficult-to-obtain out-of-print book by William Clifford were probably not quite as conducive to summer reading.

Which brings up a question I had: Why are there summer reading lists? I’ve seen them in magazines and online, and some books are even marketed as summer reading, but why does the season make a difference in what people read? Because school is out of session? Must be. That’s the only reason I can think of.

The other episode featured discussing Ryan’s critique of Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth (which appeared on Dawkins’ site), and the TV premier of Flattened. I think that episode went better. It was a lot more fun.

Also today, I got a copy of latest brochures that the Watchtower Society is releasing at their conventions this summer. Here are the covers:

and…

Let me know if you wanna see the rest.

01 June 2010

This evening Jennifer and I attended our first class of “Birthing from Within.”

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this class. I mean, I’m all for getting away from corporatized, bureaucratic crap, but I’m not quite as free-lovin’ hippie as some. Anyway, I’m happy to report the class went well. At first I was a little put off because they had us just sit down and begin drawing. I’m not a drawer; and I don’t use drawing as a hobby or an outlet for anything. Also, I hate the feel of charcoal crayons (or whatever they’re called) on my fingers. More importantly, I had just arrived, and it usually takes me a few minutes to feel comfortable in a new situation, so I didn’t feel like expressing my innermost feelings artistically immediately upon arrival.

Besides that, though, I enjoyed the class. Jennifer and I attended a birthing class prior to Owen’s birth. That class was 99% useless. For one thing, the curriculum was set up to operate under the assumption that the parents were total idiots, baffled by even how they got pregnant. For example, we had to watch a 20 minute video on the importance of good health during pregnancy, which included tips like: don’t get drunk, don’t eat junk food all day, and don’t smoke. We had to sit at long tables, like a typical classroom, which wasn’t at all conducive to a birthing class, and the instructor taught us bizarre breathing techniques, like: breath in deep once, then out twice, then four shallow breaths, then pat your head while rubbing your tummy while exhaling out of your mouth and inhaling through your ears. I couldn’t follow it. We had to go to that class two days in a row, and both days were 8 hours long. It was terrible.

But this time, we sat on pillows in a circle, and there seemed to be a general assumption that we all were competent enough to already know things about pregnancy and birth. There were only three couples, and two instructors, so not a big crowd.

Anyway, Jennifer wrote more about the experience here, so just read that. We’ll be attending this class each Tuesday this month, so stay tuned…

02 June 2010

So, time for an update on how I’m doing with some projects this summer…

I mentioned my desire to read the Little House collection of books, and to finish up Lies Across America. Well, I’ve read two of the nine Little House books already, and I’m about halfway through the third book. I haven’t made much headway on Lies, but I plan to bring it with me on our vacation this coming weekend. This evening, though, as I was reading, I realized I probably don’t have to race to finish a bunch of books before the baby arrives. After all, I know I’ll still have time to read after he/she is born and, besides, what does it matter if it takes me five years to finish my list of books?

On the subject of filmlets: I’m making progress, but not as much as I’d like. Today at work I spent about an hour working on one video, but it’s still not done. This evening I imported some more footage and I hope to begin working on that tomorrow during my lunch break. I’ve gotta ramp up the time I spend on these things.

Wood projects: I haven’t touched those sundials I was working on last winter. They’re still just lying around, wondering when I’m gonna finish them. In regards the cradle, I think it’s good to go. It’s just sitting in the garage drying and de-fuming. I’ll check on it in the next couple days and see if it looks good. If it does, then it’s just a matter of waiting a few weeks until all the fumes are gone.

In other news today: my wife visited her parents’ house today and returned with outfits for the baby, compliments of her mom and aunt. Funny thing: it’s all girl stuff. Well, some of the outfits could be termed “gender neutral,” but everything else is clearly for a little lady. I guess everyone thinks we’re having a girl. My opinion on that: for the first ten minutes of her life, a girl would be easier, because we’d have an easier time naming her. After that, though, I have no idea what to do.

29 May 2010

I saw my Dad and Stepmom today. They’re here in Minnesota for a week, and though they plan to spend the majority of their time up north at my stepsister’s home, they made time to see me, Jennifer, Owen, my sister and her husband at Chili’s restaurant this evening.

Until I saw him today, this was actually the longest time I’d ever gone without seeing my Dad. The last time we were together was at his in-laws house some 22 months ago. In fact, though he and I have lived in separate states for nearly a decade now, 2009 was the first time an entire year went by without us seeing each other.

In keeping with Owen’s policy of rampant materialism, my Dad and Stepmom showed up with two gifts for him, which kept him very occupied throughout our time at the restaurant, especially the part where he launched his toy car across the table to his Uncle Mike, who then sent it zooming back.

Here are part of the instructions that came with that car:

Let me draw your attention first to the “hint” under step two. Notice it says that shaking the car more than 8 times will not increase its travel distance. But now look under step 3: “The more you shake your vehicle, the longer it goes!” So, you know, it all depends on whether you wish to follow step 2 or 3, I guess. I think the best bet is to just do what Owen discovered without reading any directions: just start shaking the thing until you hear the motor begin, then set it down and let it do its thing.

Next, here’s the tag that was attached to the other gift he received today:

Ha ha! Who thought this was the best possible wording that could be placed on this toy? I don’t think I have anything to add to this. It just struck me as funny.

30 May 2010

If you’ve been reading what Jennifer and I post on our website long enough, then you already know that I made a cradle for Owen before he was born. If you didn’t know that, you can read about it here, in what is perhaps the best-named post EVER.

Anyway, today, I padded the wagon with a blanket, gently set the cradle on the wagon, and pulled it down the hall, into the elevator, down to the first level, and across the parking lot to our garage. The cradle is in great shape, but I thought it could be fixed up a little.

First, one of the roof panels had several nicks in it. I’m not sure how these occurred, nor why they are all concentrated on one panel, but I tried sanding them out. Some of them are deeper than I’d thought, and so I couldn’t smooth them all out. But it does look better. Next, there was some paint on one side. Judging from the color, it somehow splashed on there when Jennifer was painting Owen’s bedroom. Thankfully, it was all superficial, and I was able to sand it all off. Then there were some dark smudges on the tops of the “legs” (or whatever you call the rocker-part of the cradle); probably the result of using dark, old sandpaper on them last time. A few minutes’ sanding go them off. Finally, shortly after Owen was born, Jennifer etched his name into the bottom of the cradle with a burner, but before doing that she had written his name on there in pencil, and we’d never been able to get the pencil marks off. So, today, I sanded those markings off, too.

After wiping the sanded portions off with a tack cloth, I rubbed them with linseed oil and left it to dry in the garage. It takes several weeks for the oil’s fumes to fully dissipate, so it’s good I did this so far in advance of the baby’s birth. Now there’s still the question of what name to etch on the bottom next to Owen’s name…

31 May 2010

The weather was pretty much perfect today. Coupled with the fact that it’s Memorial Day, I knew this would make for a crowded park where ever we went. Still, it was too nice to not do anything outside, so we made our way to Crosby Lake Regional Park. We walked down to the Mississippi River and, sure enough, it was busy. There was never less than five boats in our field of vision, and people were all over, up and down the shore. That’s really not my style. I much preferred last year, in early September, when the three of us went to Fort Snelling one Friday, and there were only four other people there the entire time. For much of the day, we were the only people there. That was great. Today was too busy.

Later, we walked to Mickey’s Restaurant for dinner. It’s a fun, inexpensive place to go, so if anyone ever wants to join us, just say so. Owen insists we sit at the bar so we can watch our food being made. I think that’s a pretty good policy, really.

Also today – this is 26 years old:

I know, it’s kind of weird. Is that shoe stepping on that snake, or is it merely in front of the snake? Why is the sole of the right shoe ‘broken’ into pieces? Why do the legs stop, abruptly, right at the top of the socks? I don’t know.

My grandmother stitched this for me back in 1984, and, according to the inscription on the back, she must’ve either finished it or presented it to me on this day 26 years ago. For a time, it hung in my room. But when I was 14 years old, I moved to a new home, and I felt a little too ‘grown up’ for such a childish bit of embroidery. So I packed it away. It moved with me from place to place and, two years ago, when I suddenly had my own bathroom, I decided to decorate it my way. I have a Paul Simon concert poster hanging up, a movie poster for U2:3D, a photo montage of the solar system’s gas giants, and this “Jimmy’s Room” sign from my grandmother. Happy Anniversary to it.