BoldUlysses.com

Eventful weekend. Watched the crapfest that is Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace Saturday afternoon, and I nearly fell asleep, as did the kids. Just mind-numbingly boring. But they’re into Star Wars, so we’re ticking them off.

Ran my first half-marathon on Saturday morning in Greensboro. 1 hour 50 minutes, which bettered my 2-hour goal considerably. Nice little run; would do again. Crisp and clear 45-degree morning, lovely scenic out-and-back course with a nice long shallow downhill straight around mile 8 or 9. Felt really good.

The kids wanted to go “camping” last night, so I set up the tent borrowed from my father-in-law and the kids eagerly got ready. I thought it was going to be cold, so I had them wear long-sleeve PJs and found extra blankets. We went to bed around 8 PM and Penelope lasted until about 8:45, when she declared she was “hot” and wanted to sleep in her own bed. So I took her inside and went back out to Luke, who was sleeping soundly. Pictures of the event forthcoming.

The other thing is that this morning, as we were getting ready to leave the garage and go out to the car, I had the garage door open like I usually do so we can walk through that opening, and the kids, standing there watching the rain come down said, totally unprompted, “It looks like Dagobah, Daddy!”

Make of that what you will.

Listening to the Weepies this morning reminded me of early marriage, 2007 in our home on Birchwood, and the dew-y freshness of it all. The naivete of declaring in Sunday School that I didn’t get angry, that I just got “frustrated,” and all the rest. Ages ago.

For all the time I spend posting ridiculous garbage on Bimmerforums, I could be recording my family’s life here. Spannerhead requires so much daily time and creative energy, and I feel like I have nothing left for here, but that’s not true; it’s really just a matter of time management. Like everything else, I suppose.

Very slack in updating. I have to admit, Spannerhead.com has been taking all my time and creative energy. I have to figure out how to apportion it so that my family recollections aren’t lost, a situation made all the more urgent by the fact that it’s been an eventful few months, family-wise. If there is a silver lining, it’s the fact that the act of writing every day, whether here or on my other blog, make it less mentally cumbersome to just sit down and type. I’m getting a lot of practice, in other words.

So, briefly, let’s go over some highlights of the past few months:

• July 4 — Independence day, and the day Luke becomes a Christian.
• July 31 — Luke loses his first tooth.
• August 24 — Luke begins 1st grade at Lewisville Elementary, with Mrs Joyce.
• October 14-16 — Luke, Daddy and Granddad take his first camping trip with Cub Scouts to Raven Knob. It’s freezing cold at night, but Luke has the time of his life.
• October 16 — Penelope names her small wind-up pumpkin-head robot “Robotitaco.”

More to come. Just wanted to get a placeholder down.

For some reason, I have the chorus of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ “Who Loves You” going through my head.

Completely exhausted after quite possibly the least relaxing “vacation weekend” ever. The kids were at “Nana Camp” with Mom and Dad from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon, and they had a blast. Some activities included the planetarium, the Life & Science Museum, splashing in the backyard pool, visiting the garden and going to church. Mom and Dad had a great time too, and were more tired than they admitted to being (Dad confessed over the phone this morning, haha).

For our part, Diane and I remodeled the kitchen cabinets. We sanded and primed them on Thursday, painted them on Saturday, and hung them on Sunday. And shopped and ran errands besides. You’d think that just painting something wouldn’t be the back-breakingly tiring endeavor that it was, but holy cow. There’s so much prep work involved, and then laying on coat after coat, touching up, etc. Not fun. But the cabinets are now Snowcap white, crowd molding has been installed at the top and our hinges, knobs and pulls are brushed nickel. Between the cabinet color change, the flooring update and the beadboard on the wall, the kitchen is really coming together. I commented to Diane that it really looks like one of her Pottery Barn catalogs now.

• “Banding” Her word for “banging.” As in, when striking a hammer against a wall: “Daddy, look at me, I’m banding!” We’ve no idea where she got it from.
• “Baymbing Suit” Self-explanatory. This one has come to the fore lately, what with the summer months and talk of the beach.

Today is Luke’s last day of kindergarten. There’s no way to understate this: He’s undergone a huge transformation in the past year. He’s acquired social skills, made friends, learned to read and write so much better than he was able to, done some amazing artwork and just had a fantastic time. I can count on one hand (maybe even a couple of fingers) the number of times he’s not wanted to go to school in the morning; most times he’s chomping at the bit, excited to get in the car and go. We’re so grateful to his teachers, Mrs Conley and Mrs Upton, as well. They’ve really been understanding, patient and communicative and have helped draw Luke out so much, and have helped us understand him better as well (though he remains an enigma in many ways).

I’m going to attend “Young Authors’ Day” at his school in a little bit. He’s going to read (perform) a story he’s written, to polish off the school year. Looking forward to it.

I was bothered by what I saw of the presidential debate last night. I returned from working for my father-in-law around 9:30 and saw the last few minutes of it. Diane had watched the whole thing and filled me in a bit. My primary issues have to do with the moderator and the substance of the questions. He seemed far too intrusive and would seem like he was about to cut in when the candidates were only a few seconds into their answer. Between that and the “fluffy” nature of many of the questions, we really didn’t get an opportunity to really learn about any of the candidates. The whole event seemed like a dog-and-pony show more than anything else, which was disappointing.

I was impressed with Bachmann, though. I’ve always been impressed with her determination to stick to the principles that inform her positions on bills that come to her desk in Congress, and knowing that (it’s not as if it’s a secret), I’m a little surprised at pundits who seem bewildered by her campaign for president. They say she can’t win the nomination, which is probably true, but given her voting record, the idea of winning or losing above all else certainly doesn’t seem like something she’s constrained by. I respect and admire that, too. Possibly more than any other candidate (at least those with records of public service), she stands for principle above politics. I hope she goes far.

All that said, and this is something Diane regularly gives me grief over, I do hope Rick Perry decides to jump in. If you look at the big picture, I really do think he has the best shot, out of any Republican candidate announced or rumored to announce, of winning the general election. He’s got the charisma and the record, and is “battle-hardened” (to borrow another pundit’s phrase) by winning three (!) Texas gubernatorial elections. There’s just no dirt left to dig up on the guy. The skeletons have been out in the open for ages. His Achilles heel is the fact that he’s yet another governor of Texas, so if he announces a run, expect a nonstop “Bush’s third term” chant by the MSM all the way through, never mind the fact that the ties between the two are not nearly as close as might first appear (Bush endorsed Perry’s opponent in the 2010 Texas governor Republican primany, for instance). He’s not Bush. He’s much more articulate, a better communicator (Bush’s greatest failing) and arguably more fiscally conservative than W. He’s not perfect—no candidate is—but I think he would be a great fit.

With Luke, it isn’t so much what he loves as how he loves it. I’m realizing this lately. Actually, I think it’s something we’ve realized for a while, but with him getting older, and his approach to his interests maturing accordingly, it’s brought the realization into sharper focus.

What I mean by my initial statement is this: The common thread that ties Luke’s passions together isn’t necessarily what an outsider would think it would be, on first glance. For example, he’s interested in the planets, and by extension space, so logically, one would assume he’d have at least some interest in, say, astronauts or spacecraft or rockets or things like that, right? And it’s not to say doesn’t—he does, to a degree—but in our observation, he’s far more interested in aspects of his space interest that he can organize and systematize in his mind. That process of organization and systematization is the modus operandi that ties his interests together, as opposed to elements more intrinsic to the interests themselves. Again, it’s more how that what.

I can relate. With me, the appeal of airplanes, at least in my early years, wasn’t first and foremost things you might expect: the speed, or the flying (though those things were present)—it was the aesthetics. It was the way the airplanes looked that drew me, and that aesthetic fascination was part of the reason I connected interests as seemingly disparate as, say, aircraft and whales. They both had the streamlined, teardrop shape that I was after. Another way of putting it is there was as much of me as there was of the interest itself in whatever I was into. The interest and I “met in the middle,” so to speak.

Same goes for Luke. Focusing on his how instead of the what explains the connection between the geography interest, the astronomy interest and the way he systematizes information about each of his friends and family members, among other things. It helps explain his conversational style, and part of why he has such a hard time with discipline—the overarching “grid” of behavior and consequence is really hard for his mind to grasp. Every situation is a little different from the last, and that difference throws him off the track completely.

I want to use that knowledge of him going forward. I want to introduce new interests, or reintroduce older ones that have “glanced off,” into his rubric of how, rather than presenting them conventionally. Hopefully, it’ll help flesh out the number of subjects he can relate to, and create jumping-off points for deeper topics of discussion.

Beautiful Friday. When it hasn’t been raining, the weather’s been uncommonly “California-ish” this past month, with sunny skies, dry air and temperatures in the 70s. Love it. And it’s a great weekend to head to my parents’ house in Chapel Hill for a little visit. Looking forward to that.

The kids are growing up. Penelope has nearly full command of complete sentences now, and has naturally adopted many of the social graces that even now, Luke can’t seem to find a use for, like greetings and goodbyes, among other things. For his part, Luke’s interest in astronomy is deepening, and his mastery of the computer is coming along too. I read him an information-packed library book about the planets last night and didn’t have to skip as much as I used to; I could read straight from the text and be fairly confident that he would understand it, as full of astronomy-related terms as it was. He certainly loves his planets.

And I’m grateful for that inasmuch as it’s a point of convergence between his interests and mine. I do have a very wide range of interests, so it was nearly a foregone conclusion that there would be a point of contact, but I’m glad it occurred in such a pleasing spot for both of us. If he had decided to be passionately interested in, say, baseball trivia, I probably wouldn’t have been able to “hang” as well as I am.

He doesn’t seem to have much interest in the things I’m really passionate about, though, which is totally and completely fine. Cars, airplanes, spacecraft… He doesn’t really track with me there—again, something utterly fine and expected. Interestingly, however, Penelope might be the one who’s more into those things than he is. Granted, she’s only 3, and as such is kind of all over the place with her interests, but I have demonstrated a few things about the car, and it’s held her attention, and she does point out with some frequency when an airplane flies over. Who knows. She’s such a crazy quilt of interests at this point: clothes, vehicles, sticks, animals, being “a superhero to save you,” TV, and many other things. Never a dull moment.

When learning a new answer in her catechism, if she doesn’t quite remember what she’s supposed to say but needs a hint, she’ll tilt her head ever so slightly, squint her eyes and say, in a cute, shy voice, “Wha’s that say?”

Kills me.

1. They reported late last night that Osama bin Laden was killed. I feel strangely numb about the whole thing. I’m glad justice was done (at least, as close an approximation of justice as can be done in this world), but part of me hesitates to rejoice in the death of another. As evil as he was, he was still an image-bearer of God, however corrupted and twisted that image might have become. But, on the other hand, there are many verses in the Word where David, a man of an upright an pure heart (but a man nevertheless), pleads with God to avenge him, and tells God how much he hates his persecutors (see the end of Ps. 139 for an example). Is that prescriptive? I don’t know. Suffice it to say that while I firmly believe bin Laden was killed justly, and by the proper agents to perform such a task, it’s still a strong reminder we live in a fallen world desperately in need of redemption. I’ll leave it at that.
2. I’m sure the link will stop working eventually, but for the time being, enjoy this. Make sure you listen to the 250 GTO—the sound is like catnip for a car buff. Unbelievably good.
3. Luke and I went stargazing for the first time Friday night. He stayed up late, until it got dark, and we went out there around 9 p.m. We used his new telescope, the one he got for his birthday, and it worked well. It was a really “productive” first time, and I was happy about that. We saw Arcturus, Capella, Sirius, Betelgeuse and Spica, as well as Saturn and the Beehive. I was really proud of Luke; he remembered from his excursions on Google Sky that Saturn was supposed to be in Virgo this time of year, and sure enough, when I checked the star charts, there was a “star” in that constellation that wasn’t “supposed” to be there. And it was Saturn. Pretty neat. We both had a great time.

Sitting here at work putting off eating my turkey and cheese sandwich. Dave is out sick today, Charlie’s off to get his allergy shots, and thunderstorms are popping up here and there. The brunt of them is supposed to arrive tonight. It’ll be nice to have the rain. I love a good downpour.

Luke’s home sick, and Penelope amused herself this morning by getting into the (gas, thankfully) fireplace downstairs and emptying every last bit of dirt and soot out onto the white carpet. Diane called me in exasperation this morning and told me about it. Amazing how she chooses to ignore the dozens, nay, hundreds of toys downstairs and decides to mess with the fireplace. Unbelievable.

But we’re all well. Our latest home improvements are as follows:

1. Painted the outside shutters black to match the front door. They look awesome.
2. Spent all day Friday and Saturday putting up beadboard on the kitchen walls. Nearly cursed at my utterly useless stud finder.
3. Built a big, long work table for the garage. It fits between the cars and has storage on the bottom shelf.
4. Scored some free wood on Monday, courtesy of a crate the company was going to throw out. It’s good plywood and two-by-fours I’ll use for additional shelving in the garage.
5. Finished painting the hallway and front room Seashell Gray. It looks wonderful, cool, calm and refreshing. Love the color.

I’ve been really itching to start on the Datsun restoration, even though I know

• It’s a multi-year project,
• It’ll be far more expensive than we can budget for now,
• Home improvements are the first priority, and
• I really should be focusing more of my time and attention on my family, given where they all are.

So that’ll definitely have to wait. I might just move it to our house, though, just to help Mom and Dad by freeing up some space in their garage. And there might be little things I can tackle without spending any money. Ahh…we’ll see.

The wind is really blowing outside now. I can see the pollen and leaves come off the trees. Storm’s coming.

Luke’s 7th birthday last Saturday was a lot of fun. We all went to Funigan’s, same as last year, but this time he invited his Kindergarten classmates. Many RSVP’d, but unfortunately the “big two” he would have liked to have seen make weren’t there: Evan and Caleb. But Dominic, the Triplets and Sophia were there. His party was solar system-themed, and it was neat to hear from Sophia’s mom how he’s been teaching Sophia about the planets in school. Neat little quasi-mutual interest they have. All the relatives were in attendance as well, and Luke’s behavior was exemplary. He had a great time. He received lots of space-related books, a pair of telescopes, a water gun, a huge crawl-in inflatable ball and a few other odds and ends.

Or at least, such a claim was scrawled by Luke on a piece of paper now residing on the fridge. It’s amazing how literally he takes this stuff, how black-and-white it is for him. I tell him that the environment on the surface of Venus is like the inside of our oven, and I can just see the gears turning in his head as he works out the similarities between cooking foods in the oven here and what it must be like on Venus. It’s palpable.

Here are some of the latest Penelope-isms:

• A determined “No FANK you!” when a suggestion/command is unwelcome.
• Every morning she asks, “Dad, is it time for tasty breaktast?
• She loves to sit and watch TV with you, but she hates Pinky Dinky Doo.
• She loves to wear her headband, shoes, watches, any kind of accessory.

I finally found all our long-overdue library books after the move, returned them and was able to check out H.A. Rey’s Find the Constellations for Luke. We went through and it interested him, though he wasn’t exactly captivated by it. He’s getting a telescope for his birthday, so I foresee many stargazing nights ahead. I love that he loves the stars and constellations, by the way.

Finished reading the recently-published, excellent Children of Hùrin. Started the Silmarillion. Yes, I’m on a Tolkien kick.

A few little things to update you with:

1. Home improvement continues apace. Diane and I (mostly Diane, whilst I tended the kids) completely painted the family room downstairs, and she’s been painting other things like the TV cabinet, doorknobs, picture frames, decorations, etc. I installed stick-down vinyl tile flooring in the main bathroom upstairs, and it looks surprisingly good considering what it is. We think we might actually install stick-down vinyl “hardwood-look” flooring in the kitchen as a cheaper, lower-maintenance alternative.
2. There have been a few car repair successes to report. The ripped PCV hose on the Minkevan (causing a check engine light and very rough running) was repaired by using a copper pipe, heater hose and hose clamp pliers to remove the old unit. The E34’s ICV hoses, throttle body gasket and intake boot have all been replaced, along with its fuel pump and filter (after it failed to start on me last Monday morning). So things are good on the car front. If only I could get a longer hose so I could give them a proper bath…
3. Luke continues to be obsessed with stars and planets, but particularly stars these days. I want him to learn the constellations before I pull out the telescope, and I plan to use the H.A. Rey kids book to teach him, the same book I used when I was only a little older than he is. There’s a local astronomy club I want to take him to as well. I think he’d like that.

Very full of chili at the moment. I had to supplement the cheese topping with crushed tortilla chips instead of crackers, since we were all out of the latter. It’s a big lump in my stomach at the moment, but it’ll keep me going all afternoon.

Good Christmas and New Year’s holiday. Diane and I agreed last night that we’re happy to be through it, so we can focus on the house purchase and just returning to “normalcy” as a family. Every December seems like it’s more of a roller coaster than the last.

The kids got many good toys. Luke’s big item this year was his long-awaited violin. I’m still in the process of lining up lessons, but it was enough for him this year just to have the instrument. Penelope’s big things were her kitchen set (with a veritable deluge of toy kitchen foods and cookware) and her dollhouse. Both kids have been playing with all the toys (except for the violin, which is exclusively Luke’s).

New year’s was just another night. Diane’s been sick the past two weeks, and Friday was a particularly bad night, so I think we went to bed around 9:30 PM. The next morning we greeted each other with an absent-minded “Oh, happy new year’s.” Pretty low-key.

The house purchase is moving forward. There was a bit of an incident a few weeks ago in the aftermath of the home inspection. The house passed with flying colors, except for a few ticky-tack kinds of things. Until, that is, the inspector returned two days later to pick up his radon testing equipment, whereupon he discovered a big pool of water in the kitchen and sizable stains on the basement ceiling immediately underneath the kitchen floor. Turns out the dishwater had sprung a leak from not having been run in a year or so (since whenever the previous owner vacated the house). Thank goodness the inspector ran the dishwasher or we’d have been up a creek (pun intended).

The silver lining to the situation is that we’re getting a new dishwasher (replacement being cheaper than repair in this case) and the seller is going to foot the bill for ceiling repair in the basement, along with all the other standout issues on the home inspection report. Lord willing, we’ll be closing in less than two weeks!

1. Luke requested that I make him a couple of paper airplanes last night. I obliged and made him a “long” airplane before making him a “wide” airplane. The wide one flew better, as they usually do. After that I made him a paper popper. He’s loves them, but he’s continually amazed both by my ability to make them pop and frustrated by his own inability to do the same. He tried really hard last night, though, even going so far as to windmill his arm a few times before he brought it down in another futile attempt. He’ll get it.

2. Earlier that evening, before his sister went to bed, Luke pulled out her dress-up box, so he told me, to have a “rummage sale,” like he’s seen on Max & Ruby. Eventually he found the wings and halo from Penelope’s Halloween costume and put them on, dressing up as an angel. I was getting Pen ready for bed when I heard him announce, “I’m an angel!” and then, “Penelope, you’re a shepherd so you need to be scared of me.” I told Pen to act scared, which she did, then Luke came over to her and said, “Okay, let’s go see baby Jesus,” before leading her by the hand over to a pile of clean laundry, where baby Jesus “was.” It was very cute.

3. Penelope gets more expressive and creative by the day. Yesterday during her bath I peeked in to observe her playing with the dragon/alligator washcloth and mimicking a deep dragon voice as it interacted with the other bath toys. Her “robot voice” is something to behold as well, a monotone, “I am a robot. I am a robot.” And her pirate, “Arrrrgh!” is excellent as well.

4. We were in Chapel Hill all weekend for Paul and Carrie’s wedding, which was wonderful. We’re beyond happy for them and excited about the prospect of them moving closer than Juneau. David, Rachel and Catherine stayed at my parents’ house with Diane, Luke, Penelope and myself and we spent a lot of good time together. It was especially fun to watch Luke and Catherine interact. He loves her and is just excited to hang out with her, prance around her and “help out” his aunt Rachel. For her part, she seemed to welcome the attention and smile and laugh at him. Most 6-year-olds don’t have much time for their younger siblings, much less babies in the family, so it’s nice to see Luke enjoy interacting as much as he did.

Busy Thanksgiving weekend. We ate at Diane’s parents’ on Thursday (it was their turn this year) spent Friday and Saturday mulling around the apartment and setting up Christmas things, including the tree, and Sunday the major activity was re-visiting the Sedgewick house.

For that last part, Diane’s parents and siblings and their families were on hand to see the house and provide a few more pairs of eyes checking of potential issues (with additional experience as well). They liked the house a lot but pointed out some stuff that, while not game-changing, is definitely worth investigating. Luke and Pen ran around the house too, excited about the new experience. Luke understood in the implications better than his sister; for her it was just some new adventure with her extended family, which was fine. At the moment many things are happening at once: We’re “discovering” the house we’re interested in at the same time we’re realizing the gravity of the decision we’re about to make, the loan process moves forward, all sorts of variables enter the equation and we just want to make a wise decision, at the end of the day. It’s tough.

Well, I caught the bug too. The infamous 36-hour stomach bug that waylaid our kids, that is. It ran its course yesterday; I was pretty useless at work and very, very glad to come home to Diane and the kids. D made her vaunted broccoli chicken casserole (which I didn’t eat then but had a generous helping of leftovers for lunch today) and made a “spot” for me on the couch after we’d put the boy and girl in their spots for the night. A good night’s sleep, bland foods, sipping ginger ale and easing back into the normal food routine and all is right with the world again.

Wonderful anniversary weekend. We dropped the kids off with Mom and Dad on Friday evening and spent Friday and Saturday nights in a hotel; just a mini-getaway for the two of us. No plans, few expectations other than just time together, something we’ve needed for a while. We visited the NC Art Museum, did a little shopping but otherwise just laid low until it was time to reclaim the children on Sunday morning. Mom and Dad and the kids had a good time too. They planted flowers on Saturday morning, helped a family friend celebrate a birthday that evening and took Grandpa to the airport at the crack of dawn Sunday morning. Luke had some “readjusting” to do, coupled with the letdown from the end of a fun weekend, but Monday morning everybody was chipper again. Diane even had her best night of sleep in months, a real stunner.

Homeward.

Today is Diane’s and my fourth wedding anniversary. My perception of how the time has passed is kind of contradictory; on one hand, the years run together and it feels very short, but then I place a four-year span of time up against other periods in my life, and I realize how long it is in actuality.

It’s been an amazing adventure so far, and I see no reason for that quality to change. For all our talk and wistful thinking about changing circumstances, locations, vocations and externals, anyone who’s ever been involved in their family will tell you just the day-to-day provides sufficient joys and sorrows to trump any shift in life situation. Do we not venture out because we’re intimidated by the unknown? Perhaps. But more often than not, I think it’s because the immediacy of the emotions experienced in being married and raising children far outweighs any tenuous longing for new surroundings that might flit across our mind. Family is the substance of life; circumstances are just the trappings.

And I love her voice. I just got off the phone with her; my daily lunch time phone call. I could listen to that voice forever—I would camp outside in mid-January to hear her read the phone book. I would endure considerable distress for pleasure of hearing her talk about anything. Macroeconomics. Loop quantum gravity. The Peloponnesian War. Absolutely anything. And I get to go home to her in four hours. And then comes our weekend mini-getaway. I can’t wait.

Pen was throw-up sick last time and a couple of times this morning. We think she just ate something that didn’t agree with her; other than the incidents, she’s more or less completely herself—physical, chatty, mischievous and very, very pink. Still, we didn’t want to take her to church, so it’s been a lazy Sunday morning at home, watching TV, dabbling with Legos and coloring, reading here and there. The time change (obviously) caught the kids off-guard too; they were up at 5:30. Sigh.

Four day week this week. We’re leaving Friday for Mom and Dad in Chapel Hill; they’re watching the kids for two whole nights to give Diane and I a chance to spend some time alone for our fourth (!) anniversary. No expectations, no pressure, just a free evening, night, day, night and then morning. It’s going to be wonderful.

We went to the trunk-or-treat at Centergrove again this year for Halloween. We hadn’t been since 2007, when Penelope was tiny and wearing her “I Love My Mummy” suit and fell asleep on Grandma.

This year it was a lot of fun. Grandpa and Nana came up and participated, and we loved that they were there. Inspired partly by his recent field trip to a Clemmons fire station, Luke dressed up as a fireman, and Penelope was an angel, complete with robe (made by Grandma), wings and halo. She was absolutely lovely. Luke had a good time investigating the fire truck that showed up, and Pen went on an inflatable slide-type thing, which she greatly enjoyed. We ate chicken stew and chili and lined up for the trunk or treat around 6:30. The kids got a decent amount of candy (not too much) but by the end they were obviously dazed by the sights, sounds and general commotion. We took them back home and they conked out immediately.

Happy birthday to Paul!

Luke started his first year of public school recently. Where to start? Let’s just say academically, we had no doubts he’d excel—he’s always been smart and fully able to apply his mind to understand the matter at hand. His social skills, being underdeveloped like they are, have been a source of concern. I have to say, though, that after taking him to a Halloween party thrown by one of the class moms and witnessing Luke playing and interacting completely normally with a little boy his age (Evan), we’ve been less concerned. It was truly refreshing to see him chase Evan around the playground and to watch Evan chase him and converse.

He did have some particular challenges the first couple of weeks. He would come home and tell us the most outrageous things the teacher had supposedly said to him, like threatening gruesome punishments for disobeying and the like. Those have thankfully tapered off. Luke did torment a couple of the girls in his class, too, trying to put glue in their hair and spitting on them, etc, not out of any malicious intent so much as to just provoke some kind of response. But every report we’re hearing now from school indicates he’s making a lot of progress socially.

He really likes school and looks forward to going every day. I drop him off in the mornings on my way to work, and he’s always chatty and excited. He looks expectantly over my shoulder when I crouch in front of him and tell him I love him before “releasing” him into his class. And he’s learned so much, too—his drawing skills have exploded and he’s been writing continuously and asking questions about words and language. He’s got to figure it all out.

Went to Tanglewood for Penelope’s third birthday party. We located a table near the kids’ (and our) favorite playground and turned them loose while we set up. All four of the grandparents, one set of great-grandparents, and four of the aunts and uncles were in attendance. We had strawberry cupcakes just like her first birthday, and she received some dress-up clothes, a game and some other odds and ends. Near the end of the party Luke and Granddad, and Pen, Grandpa and myself took paddle boat rides. Luke and Pen both loved being out on the water.

Luke had a good time too, though I did have to “manage” him like I do most birthday parties. He’s just got an insatiable desire to be in the middle of everything. I suppose that’s a normal kid desire that needs to be tempered; the perceived need to be the center of attention, especially with relatives around, whose attention you’d like to have and around whom you feel more entitled to behave just as you feel. We’ve been doing more “imagine how you’d feel if you were X and they treated you a certain way” exercises, but I’m doubtful they’ve taken hold. Just have to do our best to be patient, consistent and persistent.

Beach 2010 report: Great, great trip. The kids were the real “winners.” We all were, but they in particular had the time of their lives. They both utterly, completely and totally love the beach. Luke has so much to do on the beach: splashing in the water, drawing in the sand, making sand castles, digging holes, looking at seashells, chasing gulls, etc. And Penelope loves it too—it’s well-nigh impossible to keep her out of the water. She even went wave jumping with me a couple of times and was reluctant to return to the sand.

We stayed in a house a few rows back from the beach this year. My parents rented the house and Gran and Jonathan and Leslie joined us, with Uncle Mike, Aunt Lucy and Danusa coming for the latter half of the week there. We had a private pool, which was nice especially for Pen (she loved that too). All the couples cooked at least one night; Diane and I made a Mediterranean meal that went over very well. Luke and I flew kites on the hawk’s nest on the roof and I tried to stargaze from there but couldn’t make out too much. There was supposed to be a meteor shower early in the week, and while I saw a few, no one else caught very many of them. It was kind of underwhelming that way.

All in all, it was a great trip. I’m so happy both kids like the beach as much as they do. They could just camp out there for hours and hours and be totally content, provided they were fed, sunscreened and occupied.

I love the library. Love, love, love it. I want my kids to know their local library inside and out (and possibly the county library too–any number of branches will do). Every time I visit I’m impressed with the fact that it’s like a home: Every wall has some kind of item or decoration on it; time and care have obviously gone into the place, like the schoolroom of a good elementary school teacher. Granted, much of it is chintzy and slightly tacky, but show me a home in America that doesn’t have at least one element of mismatched décor or some out-of-place looking heirloom on the mantlepiece. It makes the place seem lived-in, gives it a warmth, a patina that just draws me in. There aren’t many public projects I’d willing pay taxes to fund, but a well-kept public library is one of them.

I think a lot of my deep-seated attraction for the place stems from my many Saturday visits to the Durham County Public Library as a pre-teen. My mom was involved in the adult education program and was teaching a local man to read; their sessions were every Saturday morning. I tagged along and in the process, became very familiar with that place—the young adult non-fiction, the adult non-fiction, the reference area, the microfiche desk, the periodicals… I just loved being there, and I want my kids to feel a measure of that in relation to their local library.

Luke and Pen are both under the weather today. Luke in particular seems to be feeling it (though he’s always in denial about his illnesses)–he’s running at about 60%-75%, I’d say. We went through our normal evening routine (take out trash, take out Maple, check mail, climb on the rocks) and he was well-nigh mute the whole way, totally focused on making through his evening routine at any cost.

Just like everywhere else we’ve lived, he and I go on walks, and inevitably half a dozen or so of the landmarks we encounter become “stations” we use to describe our route, and that we focus on. Setting off on a walk, we’ve had many exchanges of this nature:

Luke: “Daddy, are we going to go by the Regular Wheat and the Rocks today?”
Me: “Yes, and we’ll see the No-Mailboxes, the Fancy Wheat and the Gazebo too.”

“The Rocks” has become one destination we visit more regularly than the others. During the construction of the apartment complex, some earthmoving machines deposited a pile of sizable rocks and boulders at the end of one of the parking lots, and Luke’s favorite activity any given walk is to climb all over them. We actually call them “the Himalayas” and we’ve named a few in particular–there’s K2, Nanga Parbat and of course, Mount Everest. Our visits to the Rocks always culminate with his ascent of Mount Everest and subsequent jump down while holding my hand. Lately, we’ve actually named the “faces” of Mount Everest; today, for instance, he scaled the “north face” before jumping down. We have a good time.

The joy of parenting reared its ugly head again this evening… Dinner was done, yesterday was payday and it was time for the weekly shopping trip. Diane hadn’t been feeling well all day so Luke and I made the trek to Wal-Mart, (extensive) list in hand.

It’s not like we hadn’t done it before–Luke is actually really good in stores, very patient, chatty, friendly and all the rest. We’d even made at least one, possibly two, lengthy trips to Wal-Mart before with the intent of making good progress in acquiring the week’s necessities. So it’s not like it was uncharted territory.

Luke’s in a funny place as far as his development is concerned. As soon as I say that, though, I have to swiftly amend my statement to disclaim that Luke is a unique boy in many (most?) aspects of his development: far ahead in some areas, significantly behind in others. He’s never had a problem acclimating himself to new groups of people; case in point: When we were visiting churches, I’d just drop him off in Sunday School each different church and he didn’t show any uneasiness in just sauntering into the classroom and making himself at home. These days he’s friendly to a fault. He offers a cheery “Hello!” to anyone within earshot (and often yells it when they’re some distance away), usually followed up with some chipper comment about his age or our activities, i.e. “I’m six years old!” or “We’re taking the trash out!” It’s cute and I encourage his friendliness, within the boundaries of social norms and conventions, but just knowing him as we do, it’s a fragment of an overall picture of a boy who’s not overly concerned by how others perceive him.

In the grand scheme of things, this is good; however, a knowledge of how one comes across is often very helpful in many ways, a few of which are empathizing with others (an area in which he lags) and grasping the principles behind social conventions without having to have each one explained in exhaustive detail–and even then it’s a toss-up as to whether he gets it.

What does this have to do with our trip to Wal-Mart today, you ask? About halfway through our trip, fortunately in a near-deserted aisle, Luke pinched his finger very mildly between two portions of the cart’s structure. His response was a blood-curdling yell, subsequent yells, thrashing about, hitting everything in sight and general pandemonium. I contained the situation as best I could and once again explained that getting hurt wasn’t a no-no, but not being self-controlled was. I held him as he wound down, deposited him back in the cart and we continued shopping. Needless to say, though, I was rattled for at least 20 minutes, possibly more, as we wrapped up our trip.

I know every kid has to learn that yelling at the top of his lungs in a crowded space will inevitably bother those around him. Maybe Luke is on track compared to other kids in his apprehension of that reality. I guess it just seems like at 6 years old he should have gotten it by now. Tantrums are more characteristic of the younger set, kids Penelope’s age and the like. Prayers appreciated for wisdom in knowing how to teach Luke to temper his emotional outbursts, communicate through them and bring them under control.

In other situations, say, when we know we’ll have to turn a request of his down and there could be some back-talk, it’s easier for us as parents to anticipate the outburst and “prep” him, i.e. “Luke, Daddy’s going to tell you something and you need to choose what kind of attitude you’re going to have when Daddy tells you. If you show Daddy you have a bad attitude, there will be consequences. Now, what kind of attitude are you going to have?” He’ll answer “A good one,” and then we’ll continue with the conversation. He generally does very well when prepped, but how do you prep a kid to control his response when he gets hurt? There’s no way to step in between the event and the outburst, so the best you can do is stay engaged and try to prep him in a situation where he might possibly hurt himself, like before a meal where the food being served is hot and he might burn his mouth. An explanation of the possible incident and the consequences of certain responses is about all we have in that scenario.

So it’s tricky. Again, prayers appreciated. Kids are a magnificent challenge, all the time.

I’m excited about dinner tonight: We’re going to the West End Cafe, the location of our first one-on-one date. We’d gone to Moe’s and then Tanglewood the week prior, but that was the three of us: Diane, Luke and myself. The West End date was just Diane and me, all the way back in the spring of ’06. It doesn’t seem that long ago when you just compare the two numbers (2006 vs. 2010) in your head, but 10, 20, 30 years down the road, Lord willing, it’ll seem like ages. I want that perspective, even if it means the end of our time together here on earth will be drawing shorter.

A friend of hers ran across some old pictures of her yesterday, and sent them to her. She shared them with me. Even now I have trouble describing the emotions that run through me when I look at them–something I could do for ages, incidentally. I told her last night that I wished I had known her then, but that at same time, we were dramatically different people, and probably wouldn’t have tolerated, let alone liked each other then (though I’m certain I’d have been captivated by her smile). I would have been a deathly bore to her, stodgy and unappealing, and she would have been the unattainable beauty to me, flighty, popular and gregarious but utterly inaccessible. I remember girls with a measure of those qualities back in my college (and after) days, but no one with the convergence of features she has. It’s a fair bet I would have been pretty far gone.

I look at the pictures and I want to know her. The greatest drive in my life, other than those directed toward the Lord, is to love her and to know her, a drive that extends backward into the past and forward into the future. My own memories are so significant to me that it hurts to know there are places in her past that are unilluminated–and I know full well that some will always remain that way.

The present is the tip of the iceberg. I see us as we move through time, standing on the tip of an unspeakably massive pyramid of experiences. I want to step back, back, back until I can see it all at once, even if my eyes can only focus on particular details, and even if I’m overwhelmed, bowled over, floored by the vista of her that spreads out before me like the sky full of stars on a dark night. I want the impression of the whole–that knowledge. I’ve always wanted that.

On the subject of pictures, from March 23, 2006:

We traded pictures today. I made her a small folder on my webspace where I consolidated (the few) pictures of me where I felt I was reasonably photogenic. I signed on AIM later and she sent me some of her. The overwhelming thought in my mind as one after another came through onto my screen was, “YES.” Yes that I wanted this, that I wanted her. Yes that it is a face, such a face, that I could look at for a long, long time. And yes that I cannot believe how fortunate I am to be accepted by such beauty. It makes the experience more tenuous (since I feel like I have less than ever to recommend myself to her) and more wonderful at the same time. I won’t share all of them with you, but it was interesting to almost experience a different moment, a new facet of her personality through the quality of each image.

I love you. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Christmas has come and gone. I’m back to work tomorrow. It’s a quiet Sunday evening. Diane and I have resumed our Netflix subscription and are working our way through episodes of Cowboy Bebop—I’ve seen it; she hasn’t, but she’s enjoying it. Generally I’m a subtitle snob (foreign-language films must be viewed subtitled, not dubbed), but I tried the series dubbed and it’s not bad. Thinking about just watching it that way for the rest of the run. We’ll see.

I received a whole bunch of guitar-related stuff for Christmas: a “Beatles Fake Book,” a book of acoustic rock numbers, a songbook binder Diane made for me, a capo, some picks and a guitar cleaning kit. So I’m set there for a while. Making some progress, but not enough to keep it from being frequently frustrating. I bought a chord book with photographs of fingering, so I’m trying out some better ways to form “A” and “G” chords, and I think that’s part of what’s contributing to my lack of progress. I’m hopeful they’ll give me a good foundation going forward, though. No shortcuts.

Luke and Penelope like pretty much everything they got. Luke particularly loves the magnetic building set his Grandma got him (he likes to make pyramids and then step on them while we watch), a little motorized bug his Nana got him, Guess Who? and Frog and Toad’s Adventure Game (both board games), his McDuff books and of course his Little Einstein figurines. He really likes playing his Little Einstein piano, too. He turns a knob and it makes a funny noise and he looks at us to see if we’re smiling along with him. Penelope loves to sit on her Little Einstein car and press the buttons She got some stuffed animals, too, which she loves. They also got a bunch of stuff they need, clothes and whatnot, which they could care less about.

Last night my parents, Diane’s parents, my brother, his wife and daughter and our little family ate out at Arigato. It’s the third year in a row we’ve had a post-Christmas outing there, and it’s always fun. David and Rachel’s four-month-old daughter Catherine was along for the ride and a lot of fun. She’s beautiful and been a great sport over the course of the holidays and its hustle and bustle. I carried her around a good bit a week ago during a visit to my parents’ house, and it was the first time I felt like an uncle. Pretty special.

Finally finishing up Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. It’s one of the best science-fiction books I’ve ever read—up there with Lewis and Herbert and Dick (I have yet to read Bradbury). The dialogue and characterizations are especially sharp and a real pleasure to read. I could make a long list of sci-fi franchises which have borrowed ideas and concepts from Asimov’s seminal work; indeed, the more I read the more I realize how the later sci-fi authors’ and directors’ main achievement was synthesizing ideas from works already published, not envisioning something new. I lose some respect for people like Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas when I learn how much they lifted from earlier work.

Without going into exhaustive detail about the general plot arc, one recent detail in the book has pleased me particularly. The names of Asimov’s characters in the book are never conventional given names like you would hear in real life. Salvor Hardin, Hober Mallow, and Ebling Mis are just a few (George Lucas mimicked this characteristic in the Star Wars universe). Recently Asimov introduced a new character: an intelligent, headstrong 14-year-old granddaughter of one of the book’s earlier heroes. Her name is Arcadia “Arkady” Darell. I can’t quite put my finger on the cause, but I love that first name: Arcadia. I told Diane about it and she loved it too. I think if we ever had another daughter “Arcadia” (or “Cady” for short, I suppose) would be on the short list for her name.

Overall, the Thanksgiving break was lovely. We visited my parents in Chapel Hill this year and enjoyed a relatively small dinner, with only Gran, my aunts Jeri and Cheryl in attendance in addition to our family and my parents. Turkey was great, as were the other dishes and especially the bean dip, something Diane prepared at my behest this year even though it’s not typically Thanksgiving-ish.

After we returned Saturday night, we went to see the drive-through Christmas light display at nearby Tanglewood Park. The lights themselves were extensive and gorgeous, as they have been the past two years we’ve been. However, Luke was in full-on brat mode and Penelope has the attention span of a mosquito (and was up past her bedtime besides), so from a parental perspective, the outing was, um, difficult. Pen is two and we can’t expect a whole lot from her given her age and the circumstances, but Luke’s a different story.

We recently checked out a book on manners from the library. It’s a little old for him, but it has cute illustrations of good and bad manners in various situations and I thought it would be good to get him acclimated with politeness and rudeness in everyday life. It didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped, though—Luke is much more interested in acting out all the ways to be rude, rather than their counterparts. In other words, it gave him a truckload of new ways to test his parents and push the envelope. Kids really are naked, living proof of the desperate condition of the human heart without the Lord. Not only that, the current situation with Luke is a perfect illustration, in a microcosm, of our sin nature’s response to “the Law” as described by Paul in Romans. The more rules we’re given, the more our nature will chafe against them. As Paul says, “Is the law sinful? By no means!” The rules aren’t corrupt or flawed—the condition of our hearts and minds is.

I feel a weird sense of similarity between my emotions about our family’s financial state and my impression of the current political landscape.

The car purchase referenced a few posts down fell through—not because of any reluctance on the part of the seller; rather, what little sense I had in the whole affair prevailed upon me to get a local 6er enthusiast to do a pre-purchase inspection before committing to buy the car and flying out to Texas (yes, that Texas) to pick it up and drive it home. The car was a wreck. The paint job looked good in pictures but in person was terrible, the engine bay was a mess, the seats were okay but the rest of the interior was slipshod, the rims were trashed and the rear valence was missing from the bumper conversion. Needless to say, I passed. However, we’d already been approved for the loan and the money was just sitting in our account—something that can be a recipe for disaster if not checked.

My natural propensity toward researching and investigating potential car purchases has run wild for the past couple of days, but now I’m finally coming around. The loan money will be repaid and car projects relegated to a future time. It felt profoundly irresponsible of me to be consider burdening our family with more debt, considering:

1. Our first priority, financially, is a house purchase. We need to save all the money we can, and work on our credit. Extra debt may not derail those efforts, but it’ll make them more challenging.
2. I can’t afford to get distracted any farther from my family by a car. By the grace of God, with the E24 purchase a good balance has been struck between car hobby time and family time, and the process of another car purchase would threaten to upset that balance, if not do it outright.
3. It’s Christmas and birthday season. Car purchases always involve incidentals here and there, money we’ll need to help out in an already tight season.
4. And maybe the biggest reason: There’s an unrestored 1972 Datsun 240Z sitting in my parents’ garage. It’s mine; my dad bought it new in 1972 and gave me the keys when I graduated from college. I can’t sell it; it’s been in the family for almost 40 years. It needs restoration, and I can’t devote all my attention to some new car and let the Z languish. Just can’t happen. That project takes precedence. So while my daily driver can be fun and interesting, I have to look at the big picture.

The connection with my impression of the political scene is tenuous, I’ll admit. Congress and the administration, among many, many other faults and wrong ideas, have completely lost sight of the big picture with the health care nonsense. They’re making very foolish decisions with our money in a time when the financial position of the country is incredibly precarious. Our family financial situation isn’t bad, but it’s never the wrong time to make wise money choices, and at the moment, taking risks isn’t one of them.

I can’t think of anything to post at length about that doesn’t bore me to tears, so we’ll just another session of notes:

1. Guitar playing is coming along pretty well. Like I told my brother David yesterday, I know 8-9 chords and can switch haltingly between them. It makes for some herky-jerky songs, but I’m getting there… The main thing now is that it’s actually fun. I’ve gotten to the point, six months in, where I can eke out something resembling a song, and that’s a big confidence booster. It makes me want to practice and play more, and I have, almost every day.
2. Diane’s anniversary present to me was Mario Kart Wii, and let me just say I’ve been greatly enjoying it. The gameplay is just brilliant, the tracks and characters are fun, and aside from a few niggles (no dedicated one-on-one battle mode, for instance), I can’t find a fault with it. Part of the reason why I enjoy that game in particular and the Wii in general is just the utter creativity of it—the ingenuity of the movements and interaction with the games leaves me satisfied creatively in addition to the quality of the games themselves. I think it was a good purchase.
3. This year we decided it’s my parents’ turn for a Thanksgiving visit. We’ll be packing up Wednesday night and leaving bright and early (read: 10 a.m.) Thursday morning. I’m really looking forward to it—I love my mom and dad, and of course the change of scenery for a few days is nice.
4. I’ve got to resume running. It’s been a good month and a half since I hit the pavement, and while the scale may not show it, I feel it—psychologically and physically. I miss the physical high, as well as the time to just clear my head and the knowledge that my need for exercise is fulfilled. Tomorrow evening I’ll get out there.

a thousand houses long
well that’s where I belong
and you belong with me

Today is Diane’s and my third wedding anniversary.

She is incomparable; she is lovely; she is dazzling. And there is no shadow of turning from her. I love you always. Happy anniversary, Abeille.

Listened to an excellent Mark Driscoll sermon yesterday at work. The subject was a character study of John the Baptist (or Baptizer). Driscoll chose to focus on a few aspects of the man and his life, among them the fact that he’s described as being “Spirit-filled” and being born of “Spirit-filled” parents, and what that means, and also the usually-glossed-over verse at the end of Luke 1, giving a glimpse into how John grew up.

The man was described in at least two places in the Bible (one of them by Jesus Himself) as the greatest man who ever lived, and Driscoll used this as a jumping-off point to discuss the biblical paradigm of manhood. He went on one of his rants against the prevailing, cultural view of manhood, something he does better than almost anyone else, and indicted society for promoting a wrongheaded view of modern manhood that emphasizes consumerism and keeps guys (not men) in a state of perpetual adolescence. Not that we’re “victims of the culture,” by any means—our responsibility is the fulcrum on which everything turns. He actually railed against the concept of adolescence itself, which is a modern invention—older, wiser societies had two categories for males: boy and man. Not only that, they had a definite markers of transition between the two, and when a boy became a man, there were definite expectations placed upon him by society at large: Move out of your parents’ house, prepare for your vocation, get a career-track job, meet a girl, take the initiative to court her, marry her, protect and provide for her and have children, create a new family unit and work to establish a multi-generational legacy. That’s the biblical model, and one seriously in decline all around us.

Driscoll drew from John’s example to underscore that real men are creators, cultivators, protectors, and not consumers, cowards and complainers. Real men step up and meet their responsibilities head-on and don’t actively try to put them off or avoid them as long as possible, something actually glorified in many corners of the mediasphere.

Needless to say, the sermon was excellent, and inspires me to step it up—by the power of the Holy Spirit—in those areas I’ve been failing, a primary one being providing my family a house—actively working toward that. I’ve been coasting, saying that when such-and-such happens we’ll consider it, but the urgency is mounting and there are many things I can do even now to prepare and learn.

Halloween was Saturday. Luke was a lion for the second year in a row and Pen wore a lamb costume my mom found. It was a cold, drizzly day—pretty much the worst possible for trick-or-treating. We made a quick trip ’round the apartment complex but only found one house that was participating. We ended up returning home, putting the girl to bed and doing trick-or-treating in the house, which consisted of Diane and myself hiding behind the bathroom and bedroom doors, respectively, and Luke going between the two, knocking and announcing himself. It actually worked out pretty well.

Penelope wasn’t all that thrilled about her costume…until she saw herself in the mirror. That distracted her for a little bit. An orange lollipop helped too. Luke, on the other hand, loves his costume like nothing else. He wore it for several days before the event and was wearing it when I awoke this morning. I think the fact that he’s able to put it on and remove it himself helps—it’s a rush when you’re 5 years old and have that kind of control over your own wardrobe, I guess.

1. She was enjoying some strawberry yogurt in her high chair earlier, and playing with a Snow White figurine. The yogurt is close to her favorite thing and she’s been doing passably well learning to use her spoon to retrieve it, but it’s still slow going. Today her solution was to use her Snow White as a makeshift utensil by unceremoniously dipping the figurine’s head into the yogurt at the bottom of the cup and then licking it off. Didn’t seem to disturb her at all but Diane and I were in stitches.

2. Lately she’s been adding the suffix “Z’me” to every request she makes. As in, “Wanna doggie z’me.” We’re not quite sure what she means by it or where she got it from, but it’s quite cute.

1. BT’s new song "Rose of Jericho" is slightly disappointing.  It’s like he’s trying to merge the more classical, experimental leaning of This Binary Universe with the more commercial-friendly ventures of the previous albums.  It sounds good on paper, but in reality it just doesn’t work too well, sounding like less than the sum of its parts.  One thing I’ve always appreciated about his music is the creativity within the song itself–the variety of beat structures and vocals dancing around one another.  His more straightforward house stuff is well done, but it’s never been very interesting to me.  Maybe the rest of the album, when it comes out, will be more varied.

2. Luke is coming up, within the next month or two, to his first experiences in a class setting.  At this point we’re planning on homeschooling him, and we’ve enrolled him in this curriculum/program called Classical Conversations.  He has homework to do throughout the week, and once a week he and all his "classmates" meet and go over the material they’ve learned.  We’re more than a little apprehensive about how it’s going to go since Luke has exhibited some noted developmental delays, especially in the social arena.  We’ll see how it goes.  If he just isn’t able to handle it we’ll try something different, but it seems like a great program and we hope it turns out well.

Penelope will turn 2 years old at the end of next month. Here are some things she does nowadays:

• Says "More strawberry yogurt, please" as all one word, something like "mostabedeenogurtpudlee." It’s very cute. Her language is acquiring a little more sophistication; for instance, she can now pronounce the word "skunk" (she has a little stuffed one) correctly, instead of how she used to say it, "suck" (said with complete relish).
• Colors literally everything if she is loose with a crayon. We’ve had to scrub the walls, the floor and the trash can lately, our ottoman has been ruined and more than a few books have been "graffitied."
• Greets me at the front door with "Hi pretty girl," which she now assumes is a standard greeting from most anyone.
• Takes all her clothes off in her crib. Seriously–we have a hard time getting her to keep her clothes on in there, and this is a problem for a still-diapered girl. We’ve come in there on more than one occasion to find her standing up in the crib, stark naked, stuffed animals on the floor, pillow on the opposite side of the bed, and she’ll be reaching for something on the dresser next to her crib with a "determined yet confused" look on her face. We’ve had to resort to dressing her for bed in tights rather than her usual loose PJ pants to keep her from being able to pull them off. We’re hoping this behavior will just "extinguish," as they say.
• Loves to read books. She’ll get into moods where she’ll just bring you an endless succession of books to sit down and read with her. Her favorite is Goodnight Moon (with sound effects) but she’ll sit for almost anything. Books with "doors" in them are also winners.
• Has a real thing for shoes. If she finds a shoe she’ll want to wear it immediately, regardless if it’s too small. Upon being told the shoe is too small, she’ll just repeat "Is too small" while continuing to try to put it on. Oh, and the number of shoes doesn’t matter either. She trudged around for most of the day today wearing just one of her brother’s red Converse hi-tops.

Unprivatized a couple of entries from last month.  Nothing revelatory; just the usual drivel.  Many times I post a sentence or two in a private entry to remind myself to return later and flesh out the thought, but just as often it doesn’t happen, or at least doesn’t happen in a timely manner.  Ah well.

Web design was quite busy for a while, and it occupied the time in my evening, sitting here in bed next to my sleeping wife, usually reserved for journaling.  Business has tapered off lately, so I’m going to try to post more, with the eventual goal being to try to strike some sort of balance where I’m not all bent out of shape if I don’t post every day, but I don’t go too long without recording something someone might consider of value.

Another element conspiring against my hoped-for prolific-ness is my diversity of interests.  One day it’s traveling overseas, another day it’s getting back in flying, the next day it’ll be really focusing on my guitar playing, then it’ll be astronomy and space exploration, after that’s it’s tweaking our website, and so on…  It’s not an ideal state of affairs, and I should point out that all these interests are in effect the "icing on the cake" of investment in my wife and kids and home life here–without a doubt the most important "interest," if you can even call it that.  Everything else comes second or lower.  If there’s time available for a more icing-like interest, great; if not, that’s fine too.  Loose hands.

Lately, however, it’s been cars again.  I introduced Diane to Top Gear last year and to my surprise and delight she totally loves the show.  We had a few seasons on DVD, and this past spring there were many weeks in which we’d watch one a night, just about.  As one might expect, it had the side effect of really rekindling my latent passion for all thing automotive, and if we’re honest with ourselves, one of the eventual results was our purchase of the minivan a couple of months ago.

If you’ve been reading my journal for any length of time you know that I have a real weakness for project cars, especially from the ’80s and early ’90s (most of them are at the bottom of their depreciation curves so it works out well).  After buying the minivan, we had three cars, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to sell one, bide my time with the cash in hand, waiting for the right car to come along, driving the other car in the meantime, and snapup a good example once it came along, selling the remaining car once that purchase was complete.  I talked it over with Diane and she was mostly okay with the idea, her only real stipulation being that she’d like it to have four doors so that it could be used more easily as a family car, in a pinch.

I went through a labyrinthine series of decisions, settling on one car, then another, deciding to keep one of our existing cars after all, then the other, and back again.  It was exhausting in more ways that one.  Initially I had my heart set on a late-’80s BMW 3-series (E30), stickshift, but for divers reasons that didn’t pan out, then I was very interested in a rarer version of the Volvo we currently own, the 780 (our is a 940 Turbo).  That plan didn’t work either, and the end result of it all is that I’ve decided to keep our Volvo and I sold Diane’s old car, a Saturn station wagon.  So we’re down to two cars again.

I have to say, though, I’m still holding out for that 780, one day when our debt has been driven down a bit and the dust has settled in other ways.  It’s boxy, yes, but the proportions are exactly right for me–the balance of visual masses, especially from the side, is perfect, and it’s comfortable and something special (only 5600 of them were imported to the US).  And mechanically it’s almost identical to our 940 (rear-wheel-drive), so that’s a known quantity.  They’re all automatics, but a manual swap can be done, and it’s not terribly expensive.  Diane was even a fan of it, calling it "academic-looking" and "pretty."  I would be quite happy commuting to work in one of those.

But for now, I’m resolved to be content.

“A-lay-lay.”

Her name for herself. Mommy and Daddy and Penelope play a game wherein Daddy uses her hand to point to himself, Mommy and then her, saying each of our names in turn. She then mimics us, first pointing to “Dada,” “Momma,” and then “A-lay-lay.” She’s acquiring words…

Random scenes around the house: Penelope’s tongue in overdrive during breakfast, a beautiful rainbow after a summer rain a few weeks ago and Luke singing his favorite hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” during family devotion time last Sunday. He sang it much more enthusiastically the first time, but as usual the camcorder wasn’t close at hand. Next time…

Luke has warmed up to Maple. She’s been learning, ever so slowly, not to bite the members of her family, and he’s been learning to have fun with her and enjoy being chased by her, as evidenced by the photo below. She’ll accompany us on our walks around the neighborhood and has already become something of a celebrity, with folks making conversation from their front yards and cars when they otherwise wouldn’t, asking about her breed, what she’s like, etc. She loves the walks and is quite the trooper, given that she’s a little dog and Luke and I don’t exactly take short walks.

For his part, Luke’s greatest source of fascination at the moment, besides his seemingly perpetual interest in geography, is a particular azalea bush in one of our side yards. There are a total of five, planted in a row, but he is drawn to one that has decided to grow out of the ground at an approximately 45-degree angle. He calls it his “leaning plant” and loves to visit it every chance he gets to go outside. Granddad jokingly refers to it as Luke’s “blasted sapling,” a moniker I particularly like. I’ve been working a lot on the yard lately and Luke often accompanies me on my tasks, buzzing especially around the Leaning Plant. We’ve already had a couple of running-through-the-sprinkler sessions, and could have some more this weekend. The azaleas in the backyard still need weeding and watering.

Recent camera photos, just a tad photoshopped (crop, grayscale):

My beautiful wife, conversing with me off the end of the bed.

Luke in the midst of morning antics today.

Pen being social for company on Wednesday.