Copious Free Time

breaking eggs

2010-03-08T05:26:03Z

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Yesterday, Sarah wanted cheesy eggs and bacon again. I had her gather ingredients while I finished unloading and loading the dishwasher -- it's so much better to cook in a clean kitchen -- and things started as usual. This time, she wanted to crack eggs. Just one, she said, but I had her crack two of the three (I'd already broken the first one). Then she started the scrambling. I had her start the microwave with the bacon in it as she had me finishing the scrambling, and then I had her put cheese on the plates for the eggs to go on top. Just one egg for me this time, as I'm getting no thinner.

When it was all done with, she ended up only eating one egg as well. That's life.

This morning, I was doing boring old morning stuff when I was informed that Sarah had made bacon and eggs already, with Cathy standing by. A little firmer than I make them, but perfectly acceptable and tasty eggs. Sarah is learning to cook.

In other news, back when we were still in Virginia, I told Cathy I had decided my midlife crisis car would be a Honda Element. Three days ago, we closed on a red 2006 Element that I might call Mao. Sarah, who has been an Element fan since she learned of my interest, likes it because it's kind of like a van and it has great back seat legroom. It's the first car we've had with Automatic. I guess I can deal with that. It has four-wheel drive for those weather emergency days. My god, I have an SUV. Now I have to be saintly in my driving conduct to try and counteract the bad rep all those other drivers have given us SUV drivers.

I've also had a busy week designing a web page for the Friends of the Library here, working on a couple of books, and participating in the "Art Ambassador" program at Sarah's school. This was the Faith Ringgold unit. The next one will be Winsor McCay: my unit.

And now I will head for bed.
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sunday morning

2010-02-28T16:24:06Z

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At 10, Sarah asked if I'd make cheesy eggs and bacon. Right now? I asked. I could do it at 10:30, she said, so I could wake up more. I said I'd do it if I had help.

So for 20 minutes, I looked at the computer and read _The Graveyard Book_ and then got dressed and went up with Sarah on my back, which is still technically possible. There were ants to kill along the way -- ant season is upon us again. Snow sifted steadily downward outside. More ants perished.

She began collecting ingredients as I put dishes away from the dishwasher. "Should I turn the stove on?" she asked. No, I'm doing this first, I said, and I put dishes away and loaded the dishwasher with dishes I'd rinsed and stacked the day before, then gave the preliminary clean to the other dishes, dumped a dead ant out of a teacup, and finished up, tidying the counter. Then I had morning fiber (Metamucil, 1/2 teaspoon) as Sarah mopped around the dining room for something to do.

I put the bacon in the microwave. Sarah turned the stove on (something she's been doing a comparatively short time) and I put butter in the pan. She wanted to break the eggs, but I opted to demonstrate more before the day she gets to start doing it. She began scrambling. "I'm making sure to get the stuff on the bottom," she said, echoing an earlier lesson.

"I love teaching you stuff," I said. "Some day you'll know it all, and then I won't be able to teach you any more."

As the eggs coagulated, she let me take over. I told her how much time to put on the microwave, and she started the bacon. Between scrambling, I laid a layer of grated cheese on each of our plates. The microwave beeped just after I started putting egg on top of the cheese. We each finished off our own eggs with more cheese, pepper, and garlic salt. Bacon was placed alongside.

If we feel like going out in the snow, we'll go bowling and probably have lunch somewhere like Taco Bell, her current favorite (and inexpensive). If we stay in, we might play games on the Wii instead.

Typical Sunday morning. With ants.
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visitor

2010-01-19T14:00:04Z

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My window here opens out at ground level, and through the slats I could see an animal's legs on the porch. A cat perhaps? I went back to getting Sarah ready for school and the bus. Snow on the ground this morning. Must remember to get my car out of the garage so Cathy can park there when she comes in from Boston this afternoon. As usual, Sarah was outside first. "Dad! Matty's here."

Matty was the dog next door, friendly enough but still puppy-rambunctions. Sarah encountered her a couple of times a day when coming or going to Zach's house. Our back yards join at the property line under the utility wires, and our front doors are 2/3 of a mile apart by car. Sarah said she scratched her one time, probably from trying to jump up -- sometimes she was too friendly.

This morning, she was polite but skittish. She came when I called her, and she was willing to come with me to the back yard, but making eye contact and then looking at where I wanted her to go (a trick that had worked to perfection once in Virginia when a neighbor dog had escaped their wooden fence) didn't get me anywhere.

I went in to get my phone. "Don't let her go in the house!" Sarah cautioned, but Matty didn't seem inclined to follow me in anyway. Frances was on the stairs, as usual, rubbing her sides on the rails and angling for some pets. I came out with the phone and called over. Their number was the most recent on my list. I'd used it a day or two ago when Sarah had kicked off a boot that proceeded to hit Zach in the face.

"Hello?" Zach's mom sounded sleepy. Perhaps she'd worked late at the ER last night.

"This is Kip. Matty's over here. I tried to get her to go back, but she's just hanging around here."

Deb thought about it. "The battery in the invisible fence thing might be low. She probably doesn't want to cross it. You could take her collar off." I wasn't keen on that, because Matty was acting pretty nervous. "I'll come over there and get her in a couple of minutes." I said I'd stay with her until then.

Sarah petted Matty. "She likes getting pets on her tummy," she told me.

"She should lie on the porch instead of on the cold snow," I said.

"She likes to be a snow dog." Sarah explained. "Where's that dumb bus?" I suggested that the snow might be slowing it down, though it was a pretty light snow. A minute later, it showed up. "Don't let her get on the bus!" she said. She petted Matty one last time and then dashed to me for a kiss before going down the driveway to stand ten feet away from the arriving bus. Sonali ran across our yard to get on with her (Sarah's friend from two houses away tended to make the bus just in time, more or less). I tried to get Matty to follow me to the back again, but she opted to stay by the corner of the house and watch as I whistled. This time I saw something I hadn't noticed before -- a small pile of what seemed like they could be deer droppings. I saw that the sleeve over one of Sarah's tiny apple tree seedlings had fallen partway and straightened it back up. Then I could see Deb coming over, and then she started calling to Matty.

"Matty! Silly dog. What are you doing over here?"

"She might have followed a deer. I just saw a pile of droppings -- it's a miracle nobody stepped in it." Everybody had walked within a foot of the footprint-sized pile. If there were any hoof prints in the snow, we'd wiped them out. Deb removed the electronic collar so it wouldn't keep Matty from entering her yard, and escorted her back to her own side.

"Oh yeah, she's a lot more comfortable now," said Deb as Matty went into full happy mode. "Thanks for calling us!"

I thought about poor Matty as I went in. A deer, perhaps, lured her across the invisible fence, but nothing could lure her back across the electronic barrier, so she picked our front porch as a sort of haven. It was lucky for her (maybe she smelled us here) that she'd found friends. A fence works both ways.
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to you and yours

2009-12-26T05:50:59Z

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I should have posted it earlier. My mind was wandering.
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riot act

2009-12-17T13:32:12Z

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After reading "The Straight Dope" (specifically the second book thereof), I betook me to Google, and hence Wikipedia, to see the following:

"The wording that had to be read out to the assembled gathering was as follows:

'Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!'"

Also from Wikipedia:

The act created a mechanism for certain local officials to make a proclamation ordering the dispersal of any group of more than twelve people who were "unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together". If the group failed to disperse within one hour, then anyone remaining gathered was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy, punishable by death.

The proclamation could be made in an incorporated town or city by the Mayor, Bailiff or "other head officer", or a Justice of the Peace. Elsewhere it could be made by a Justice of the Peace or the Sheriff or Under-Sheriff. It had to be read out to the gathering concerned, and had to follow precise wording detailed in the act; several convictions were overturned because parts of the proclamation had been omitted, in particular "God save the King".

The full text of the Riot Act of 1714 itself was a bit longer. Reading the whole thing to an unruly crowd might have had a rather soporific effect. Then again, they were used to listening to long blocks of text in those days.
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our daughter

2009-12-12T22:04:55Z

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When Sarah uses words and phrases that are oddly familiar, I know she's my daughter. Once in a while, i see signs of Cathy in her too.

For instance, on the floor around her bed (also known as the living room floor -- she says she'll sleep in her bunk bed when her room is finalized from the paint job), she has little stacks of books, categorized by series. These stacks are carefully and neatly squared off and parallel to the wall. On top of each one is a little sheet from a memo pad on which she has written the series title for the books.

It's true that I have kept lists of things like that over the years as well, but Sarah wasn't around in the heyday of my organizing, so I can only conclude that she's being her mother's daughter when she does this. God, I love this kid.
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holiday special

2009-12-04T02:19:19Z

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Every year since... I guess some time in the 90s... I've taken pleasure in reprinting this song. Think of it as being animated by Rankin-Bass, with character designs by MAD artist Paul Coker, Jr. Settle back with some hot chocolate and sing along!

Freddy the Snowman

Freddy the Snowman,
In his scarf of red and green,
Didn't look too spry, but my oh my!
What a stone-cold death machine!

Freddy the Snowman
Got most everyone but me
With his eyes of coal and his evil soul
On his chilly killing spree.

There must have been a curse upon
That rusty kitchen knife:
When Suzy put it in his hand,
The snowman took her life!
(Ow!)

Freddy the Snowman
Was a child molester too,
And I heard him say, being dragged away,
"I'll be back, next year, for you!"

(Hackity hack hack, hackity hack hack,
Hacking hard and deep!
Stabbity stab stab, stabbity stab stab,
Kills you in your sleep!)
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seasonal effects

2009-12-01T13:36:24Z

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With the successful conclusion of the play, I suddenly had time for overdue activities. Last weekend Cathy said we would rake leaves in the back for an hour or so. Three to four hours later, I finished the job, dispatching all the leaves that were on grass, including many that were drifted near the house and under the trampoline. The last hour or two, it was just me and the blower, plus a rake and a tarp. I had scrounged a small length of slim cord at set strike (it was already in a pile for the trash) and tied it through two grommets of the tarp, and found that by running it through various other holes, I could control the whole back half of the leaf-laden tarp. The city trucks were out as we worked, sucking up leaves, so we worked faster. They came down our street on the other side, then vanished, leaving me able to get all our leaves out. I think the physical therapy I was getting, and the new exercises, are one reason my back doesn't ache more.

I'm bearded, still. After the show, I decided to keep most of my show whiskers. My beard is a lovely, even shade of white, unlike the motley red-and-white it was in 2003. The mustache was still sandy, but I found it too annoying to keep. It soaks up beverages and holds onto them, so I removed it. I didn't take it out completely, though. I removed the middle and kept the Cantinflas bits, still bridged to the side pieces that join with the beard. Vain soul that I am, I smile at myself in the mirror when I see it.

Monday morning I heard a noise outside. Leaf truck! All the leaves are gone.

Sarah and I had dinner nice and early for once, which left a little time before her Chinese class. She used that time to mention that she needed string for a school project. I went into emergency mode, and we hastened to the corner drug store (Actually, there are three drug stores on that corner. I don't know what's wrong with the other corner. It seems to lack ambition.) and I found string and we got to her class on time. Actually, we were ten minutes early, so I drove down the road a little and we looked at lights.

Sign of the season in the yard showed that it would soon snow: wooden posts beside the driveway, placed by the snow plow guy so he doesn't plow the grass.

After class, Pam came over from the theater group to hand off copies of the music for the Christmas caroling this coming Sunday. I had music already for the four songs (not carols) that would also be sung. Good; I can practice for it.

This morning I was the last one up, as usual, but the first one to look out the window. Snow lay round about, though not deep. In some places it was uneven, and I didn't bother to check for crispness. (I'm dreaming of a white crispness.) Sarah tramped around, making footprints as she waited for the bus. She called upon me to walk in her prints and make them bigger. I did so until her tight turning radius made it too hard to follow. She packed some and asked if she could eat some, and I said I'd rather she didn't. I know what's under the stuff. Worse stuff.

She'll be out of school and home around noon. Cathy and I will go in for a 2:00 parent-teacher conference.

Cathy told me yesterday what I'm getting for the upcoming birthday/Christmas season. I asked if I could open it early when it comes. I have not yet received a definitive answer.
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ACK-ting!

2009-11-17T16:22:58Z

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Finally, I'm back on stage. Not since "Company" in 2003 have I trod the boards, and I have missed it something fierce. In 2003, we went to China and became parents, which made me too busy to do anything. In 2005, things were under control enough that Cathy said I could try out for "The Music Man" at CNU... but then she was in the process of changing jobs, and I couldn't be sure of being at every rehearsal, so I reluctantly bowed out. Up through 2008, I was trying without success in Massachusetts. In 2007, I at least managed to audition a time or two, but couldn't crack any of the groups.

In 2008, we came here to western NY, and for a year or more, I never knew about any auditions. By the time I found out about a given show, it was a couple of weeks from taking the stage. (Now I find out that at least one of them could have still used a chorus body at that late date -- live and/or learn.)

Finally, it all came together for me, and I got the coveted part of Chorus Member in Pittsford Musicals' "Carousel," including a brief talking part at the very end. It's so great to be hanging around theaters, hobnobbing with my fellow thespians, and of course, being up on a stage with people looking at me. Hopefully, it'll be on to bigger and better things (for me -- the show itself is fairly big and it's going great).

We're halfway through the run. Two performances on Saturday and a matinee on Sunday down, a Friday night and two more Saturday shows to go. Sarah came to the Sunday matinee, and bless her heart, she seems to have been fairly attentive to all three hours of it. I showed her to as many of my fellow theater folks as I could afterward, and then we went to the chili party, which was pretty conveniently close to home.

Aspects of daily life continue. Sarah had a tooth hurting her and we took her to the dentist where she screamed in the chair while they tried to pull it quickly so they could go home. We're changing dentists next year, and I hope next year comes soon. The tooth was infected, so it was all probably quite painful for her, even with anesthesia. Yesterday she and I got new watches. Her old one got left outside, so she is paying for 2/3 of the cost of the new one. My old one no longer lights up at night (despite putting in a new cell), and after a couple of years of that, I decided to replace it as well.

I got all the leaves out of the front yard. Remembering that raking while I had a slight cold last year gave me pneumonia for my birthday, I got the blower out and let electricity do the heavy lifting. I think it's the first time in ten years I've used the thing, but results were satisfactory. It was even kind of fun.

Exercise has taken a back seat to the show, but I'm getting back on track with the daily walk (between one and two miles) and the stretches from the physical therapy I've been taking to try and mitigate some of the side effects of still being alive.

Also, I have been getting a fairly steady stream of inquiries about my professional services, some of which have resulted in paying work. That said, I should probably be doing that instead of this, but I wanted to catch up a little. Cathy's finishing a term paper for her class. She's not in love with what she did, but it should get her by. Sarah is done with sports for a while, but she's taking Tae Kwon Do (influenced, perhaps, by the impressive Shaolin Warriors we saw at the college). Her spelling is good at school, and though she doesn't study her Chinese vocabulary enough, she still does fairly well in class. We throw a tennis ball back and forth in the morning while we wait for her bus. The other day she gave me a cut-out heart she'd colored and written "Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you" on it. The spelling was erratic, but darn, what a sweetie.
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october 30, 2009

2009-11-01T14:15:17Z

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We had supper at King Buffet, a family favorite. It was Sarah's turn to choose. We headed first for the stuffed clams, but they weren't out. I think I may have managed to eat more lightly this time. Near the end, the stuffed clams showed up after all, and Sarah and I each had a couple. Then it was time for the main event of the evening, the Shaolin Warriors, live on stage at Nazareth College.

Cameras of any sort were expressly prohibited during the high-energy precision show. The eighteen men and two boys of the troupe all seemed to be able to do standing flips and were amazingly limber. It looked dangerous as anything. Partway in, they went into the audience and started recruiting kids to go up on stage, including Sarah. They stood them in two lines, and the grownup started making moves for them to imitate, then would pass among them correcting their position and stance. I wished I could have taken a picture, but even if I'd turned off the flash, the camera would have made a noise, and I would have gotten a blurry picture and been ejected.

They also brought some adults up to the stage later. I didn't volunteer.

At one point, they did the impressive stunt of having a man lie on four swords with a board full of nails on top (nails sticking out both ways) and another man on top of that. Then a cement block was broken on top of the top man. That was the only thing they did where I knew how it's done (the points distribute the impact; the breaking cement absorbs the blow), but I imagine it required a lot of control to lie on the swords without squirming. You wouldn't catch me doing it.

They also included some bits of comedy here and there. Every now and then there was a knockabout moment with one person cuffing another. They performed a drunken number, with pretended guzzling from gigantic pots and much weaving and passing out along with the impressive weapon work and tumbling.

They did precision fan work (of much interest to me, as I had done precision fan work as a chorus member of CNU's "Mikado" in 2000), spear work, sword work (The swords they wielded at each other seemed very flimsy, but I don't mind that. The ones they broke over their heads seemed solid enough.), knife work (One man held heads of lettuce or cabbage to his stomach and shredded them at lightning speed. The boys, as always, cleaned up anything that landed on the stage.), and cudgels. The whip displays were impressive and loud.

Perhaps my favorite stunt was with short lengths of rope. Sitting on the ground with the legs out, a performer (or perhaps I should say a monk) could whirl the rope in circles on the ground, and jump it. Sitting on his ass, he could jump rope, hopping up an inch or so each time the rope went around in order to clear it.

It all took place in the new theater at the college, which looked spiffy. My daughter has now performed on it before I had a chance to. The only technical aspect I felt like criticizing was at the end of music cues -- instead of a smooth cutoff, it sounded like a cassette tape being paused. The music got strangled about half the time. Sounded very clear while it was playing, though.

It was solidly entertaining. All of us, including Sarah, were enthralled.
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october 31, 2009

2009-11-01T13:57:16Z

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In Massachusetts, we would have hundreds, because families in Springfield would drive to West Springfield, and ours was the first street they got to.

Here in New York, they all seem to be local. Indeed, in at least half the groups of kids we ran into, there'd be somebody who went to school with Sarah, and they'd either say hi to each other or I'd hear them tell each other "It's Sarah!"

We got off to an inauspicious start. Sarah was supposed to go out with Zach from across our back yard, trick-or-treating over on his street, but for some reason that fell through. Alternate plans were made with Jay and Julia. Then an hour before time, Julia's mom called and said that she (Julia) wasn't feeling well, so I called over and arranged for Sarah to go out with Max and Gaby. A half hour later, Gaby's mom called and said that Gaby was having a meltdown over the issue of wearing an insufficiently warm costume on a cold, wet, windy night and might not get to go out at all.

At a bit after six, Sarah and I started out. I had her put on a jacket over her werewolf suit. She found the mask to be hot. I felt a light sprinkle and grabbed an umbrella from the car. The first house we went to was right across the street, and Mark's grandkids were just starting out with their parents. We latched on.

The rain threatened one more time while we were out, but it never really hit. Sarah was warm enough in her costume that she not only had me carry the mask most of the time, she also had me hold her coat from about halfway in. We covered the two blocks bounded by Round Trail on our side of Stuyvesant, walking about a mile (just under) in total. We ran into Julia. When we got to Max & Gaby's house, they were out. Not terribly surprising, considering the stakes: FREE CANDY.

I was curious about what the Chinese family on Vantage would be doing. They had moved in recently, and they don't seem to speak English. They were giving out dried fruit. At my prompting, Sarah thanked them in Chinese, and I added my own thanks to that. Once our group was away from the house, most of them decided they didn't like the fruit. Sarah gave me a piece, and it was something between a prune and a dried apricot. Not bad, but different.

Sarah's plastic pumpkin filled up and she emptied it into the canvas bag I'd brought for the purpose. Cathy said there were fewer kids out this year, so we have a serious surplus of treat material.

All in all, a fairly successful year.
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thing to thing

2009-10-23T12:54:54Z

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Yesterday was the busiest day of the week for me. In the morning, I had 'Art Ambassador' for Sarah's class; my first time as classroom coordinator. For this, I get a mixed grade. I did arrange the date with the teacher and get it on the calendar. I did not inform the other volunteer parents for the classroom. I got there and realized that nobody's going to do that for me this year. I was going to tell the teacher we'd have to reschedule, but as I got there, the substitute (both classroom teachers were out sick, as I recall) was telling the class we were about to do the project. I conferred with him and we decided to go on and give it a shot.

I went through the checklist, locating most of the items except for copies of the handout, so I took the master to the office and requested twenty, and for the next hour we kept the kids supplied with brushes and watered glue and tissue paper strips to glue down. I showed the Eric Carle video and the display board one of the other parents had made. Sarah had been present for the session where I was shown these things, and she was a valuable and very forward volunteer in helping get things done. We proceeded from step to step. After the glued parts went off to be hung up for drying, each of us took a group of kids to wash their fingers for the second part. I took the girls, with Sarah leading the way. Oh, she loves being in charge.

Things got tricky when we brought out the stencils (one kit for a caterpillar, one kit for a butterfly), but we managed to enforce sharing of the kits and of the limited scissor supply. I headed off some potential difficulties by telling them to number the pieces like the stencils so they'd know if they had a complete butterfly or whatever.

The handouts arrived before they left. As kids were finishing, I praised their work and urged anybody with free hands to pick up some of the leftover trash. They left, and I finished cleaning up and putting things away, with just enough time left to hasten homeward for the anticipated installer from Sears, bearing a new dishwasher. Sarah and I had gone a couple of weeks ago to pick it out at the store. There were phone messages, and I thought it was going to mean some delay with the appliance, but it turned out to be the author of a book I had just converted, telling me that one of the photos had vanished in the PDF. I fixed that and sent him the corrected file with apologies.

It turns out the installer was running late, so I was done with lunch when he came. That part went fine. Old dishwasher out and gone, new one in. Still, I had less time left than I thought, so I had to wait on the next part of my day until Sarah was home.

I told her when she got off the bus that we had to go out and do some things together. She suggested an alternative, but when I checked with the other parents involved, it was not workable. We went to the fire station together, and she got to see me get a flu shot. Then we went to the post office and I sent a thumb drive back to the author. Then we took a Pokemon tape back to the library, and I paid the overdue fine. Sarah vanished into the children's library, and for a while I just browsed the shelves. Libraries can be quite enjoyable. I'd been there on Tuesday for a luncheon honoring volunteers (of which I am one), and if I'd known, I could have returned the tape then. We got home half a minute before Cathy arrived. She had been at the grocery store, finding out that I had forgotten to call in a refill of Malathion for Sarah's head bugs. Oops.

A package arrived. It was the replacement for a shelf in the door of the fridge that had broken some time back. I put it in place with a sense of accomplishment. Then I relaxed a little and fiddled at the computer. Cathy made a tasty supper of stir-fried meat and Southwestern vegetables. Sarah helped me collect household trash and recycling and get it out. I couldn't tell exactly if I was required at rehearsal, so I went anyway and found that I could return home. I did find that our choreographer's husband was doing better (the car they were in was hit head-on by a drunk driver a few days ago, and he was badly hurt; she was injured, but not as much) and passed the news to another cast member who showed up as I was leaving.

This gave me time for stretches. I'm taking physical therapy to try and stretch some of my muscles and keep flexibility in the sacroiliac area. Only there are so many stretches now, that it takes the better part of an hour to do them all. Still managed to get to bed a little early and sleep pleasantly until morning. I got up and heard Sarah bossing her imaginary big brother, Sean, in the living room. Sean can't seem to do anything right. Her imaginary brother Alex doesn't get nearly as much criticism.

I didn't find out until today that Soupy Sales had passed on, which made me a little sad. He was a funny guy. Sarah mastered shoe tying earlier this week. I heard her tell Cathy that she didn't need Daddy for that. This is, of course, a good-news/bad-news thing. Daddy likes to feel needed, but then, Sarah says it was Daddy that taught her how to do it, and she just suddenly realized what Daddy meant. She seems concerned now that she doesn't tie them quickly, but I told her that will come. I put her ponytail up for her. We didn't play catch this morning because of the light drizzle.

Today is a day bright with promise. I showed Cathy a card that had been placed in our mailbox from a local piano tuner, and after I called them about their rates, she said I could get the piano in the music room tuned, and the sticky key unstuck. I'm looking forward to that. Tuning it myself has been gratifying enough when it comes to making bad notes stop being so bad, but I lack the chops for putting the whole thing in tip-top tune.

It's been a busy week, but Thursday was definitely the busiest day of it.
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help meeeee

2009-10-09T01:41:38Z

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I have a potential job from a client with a QuarkXPress file they'd like changes made to. There is one small hitch.

"This is a multiple language document and can only be opened in QuarkXPress Passport." The document was saved in Passport as a multiple language document, therefore only Passport can open the document. Had it been saved as a single language document, I am told that regular Quark can open it.

If someone with QuarkXPress Passport could be found, they could save the document as a single language document. Barring further unforeseen developments, I should then be able to make changes to the document and earn a fee.

Does anyone out there in Radio Land have this program, which costs $500-$900 US? If so, I would be most anxious to enlist their aid. I have not yet reached the stage of an agreement between me and the potential client. I asked to look at the file so that I could make an estimate. It is possible I might be able to get a small sum from the client for the conversion. I don't know yet. I was hoping I could estimate two or three hours of work at my regular rate and make some quick money.

These are the facts. Can you tell me who killed Colonel Mus-- I mean, can anyone help me with this? If nobody else in the world has bought this program, I'll understand. Believe me, I'll understand. I'm exploring avenues here. (Or is that yet another Quark program?)
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slide show

2009-10-08T04:48:38Z

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I've been slaving over a hot keyboard today. I actually put in something on the order of six hours organizing and selecting photos, putting them on my flickr page, finding that half of them were already there, blasting away duplicates, deciding on an order, captioning, and mostly, waiting for flickr to wake up. That was the fun part.

Anyway, the magnum opus is finished. I have made a new photoset of the pictures I took in 2006 and 2007 of the derelict amusement venue, Holyoke's Mountain Park, and the nearby derelict (and somewhat newer) water park. Mountain Park closed in 1987 after 80 years, and the wooden coaster was torn down in 1990.

In the course of looking up older photos to put names on some of my pictures, I learned that Jay Ducharme (whose pictures and sound files I linked to) finished a book on the park's history. He was one of the last carousel operators. The book, fittingly, is being sold at the carousel, which is now in Heritage Park, by the Children's Museum. It came out about four months after we moved out of town.

I also found out that bulldozers have finished obliterating the place, and a new owner hopes to make a concert venue of it.

Having found the access road, we have driven up and parked just off the bridge over I-91. The animated clown sign that invited drivers to visit Holyoke's Mountain Park for years is long gone, but the sign for the water park farther up Mt. Tom (which closed more recently) is still visible and peeling away. Let's go on in!

One of the overpasses that allowed pedestrians to cross paths with the little Zephyr train that ran around the park and also marks the location of the mini golf course, whose carpeted greens are among the more recognizable features of the park.

For a real treat, check out Jay's page. He was a carousel operator before the park closed, and he saved the recorded sound tracks from the Pirate's Den and Zoltan, the robot fortune teller.

www.karenandjay.com/mtpark/mpsounds/mpsounds.html

Sadly, Thurl Ravenscroft doesn't seem to be among the pirate voices. Anyway, this seems to be the roof of the Dolly Pitch, where you pitched dolls at baseballs to win wooden bottles. Or something.

www.karenandjay.com/mtpark/mphotos/2006pan.jpg

A three-dimensional view of a hill of poles. This is freeview 3D, because cross-eyed 3D gives me a headache and won't hold still. I took some other 3D pairs as well and might do something with them some day. More information about freeviewing can be found on the internet.

Seriously, go have a look if you can. I hiked in the hot sun to get these because I thought it was interesting, and I put a couple dozen of them up two and three years ago, respectively, and they've been looked at between zero and three times, ever. Be the first on your side of the Mississippi!
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our story so far

2009-09-22T02:50:28Z

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Rehearsals for the play are going fine. We sing for an hour, then we choreograph numbers for two more. I've started bringing the big portable fan from home to put a little breeze in the room. Whenever my dance partner and I aren't being actively rehearsed and instructed, we use the time to confer desperately so we can figure out what we're supposed to be doing. We prevail upon two or three of the quicker studies for help. A couple of days ago, the choreographer got everything we've done so far up on the web page, so I've been constructing the most perfect possible cheat sheet. Things are going great.

Sarah has her bunk bed now. The guy we bought it from trucked it over and helped hold the ends up while I slid the cross pieces in so Cathy wouldn't have to do it. Got the whole thing together, and she's sleeping in it now for the second night. She went with Cathy to get linens for it. I went to Target with her to get a chair for her to use with the desk underneath, and we'll get her a lamp pretty soon to replace the one I borrowed from the sun room.

So far, she has no homework from school. That starts in October. She does have homework for her Chinese class, which she already says she's tired of. It's hard for her teacher to keep the attention of the half dozen or so kids (ages 6-7) in her charge. After about ten minutes, they spend the rest of the hour squirming and crawling and goofing off to keep themselves awake.

I'm getting back in the habit of walking each day. I started off doing just over a mile, then expanded my path to slightly under a mile and a half. Today I tried a new route that turns out to be just over two miles and takes me out of the neighborhood. It was pretty hot in the middle of the day, but it might be tolerable in the evening.

Speaking of hot, I looked at the weather on my home page this morning, and it said it was 121 degrees here. I clicked the link to find out more, but it said it was in the 50s. I returned to the home page, and things had heated up to 123. Gosh darn Congress.
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OH --

2009-09-12T14:31:07Z

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I auditioned for the part of Jigger in "Carousel" a few nights back. I had Cathy bring me sound tracks, a libretto, and the vocal score, and I sang his songs in the living room for a couple of weeks. First time I managed to catch an audition here. It went pretty well. I sang confidently, danced along with everyone else, and showed that I can stand still on stage when someone else is doing their bit. Only I didn't get to actually read a scene, and I wasn't summoned to callbacks -- which, we were assured, was not a bad sign. Then I waited for a call.

-- WE ARE THE BOYS OF THE CHORUS --

The call came. I am in the Townspeople's chorus. My heart sank, of course (of chorus), but I understand that this is part of the audition process for me. It's not always easy to crack a community theater group: Cathy says they probably have it half cast before the first audition, and I expect she's right. So I get in with one miniscule part, and after that either the powers that be will have learned that I am capable of good things, or I will have learned that the powers that be are morons who are not worth bothering with. In the mean time, I will get to hang with actors and choristers and develop the sort of familiarity with a classic score that can only come from weeks of rehearsal.

-- WE HOPE YOU'LL LIKE OUR SHOW! --

Mind you, being in the chorus is the hardest thing in the show. It's more work, more dancing, and way less fun. You have to watch people doing what you want to do. Well, except I have a speaking part as well. I am the School Principal. Listen:

Enoch Snow, Junior!
Miss Louise Bigelow!
Our speaker tonight is the most popular, best loved man in our town, Doctor Seldon--

See? I already know my lines! And I'm coming to grips with my character. I figure he's a bitter alcoholic.

-- WE KNOW YOU'RE ROOTING FOR US --

Tomorrow, it begins. After six and a half years of no theater apart from two Poe readings and a triple role in a reading of Richard III at CNU (an interval which corresponds almost exactly with the amount of time in which I have been a father), the long dry spell is over. This could... this should... lead to bigger and better things. Substantial roles. Getting out of the house. God willing, I'll even make some friends.

-- BUT NOW WE HAVE TO GO!
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dads

2009-09-10T12:10:23Z

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I meant to mention that I felt a tad silly taking pictures of Sarah getting on the bus for her first day, but did it anyway.

Later that day, I was going somewhere and at every bus stop I saw, there was a dad with a video camera, half-following the progeny as they boarded and watching the bus depart until it was out of sight. Now I just feel like I'm behind the times, Daddy-o.
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dear diary

2009-09-09T04:24:22Z

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Counted down to the end of summer. Sarah said she was looking forward to school, because she likes school. I said that was a good way to be. Much shopping was done, to prepare her for the demands of education. I went to her classroom for a prep session with the teacher, and volunteered for stuff. Art Ambassador (they'll be doing the unit I suggested on animation and Winsor McCay -- and the kids will do simple little animated gizmos), Science Action (I don't know yet which units), reading to the class (I'll bring scans of The Bear that Wasn't to project on the screen so they can appreciate the sight gags), and telling them what I do for a living.

On Monday, the last day before classes started, Sarah and I took a bike ride to Thornell Farm Park. She played a while (I took a movie of her making the circuit on the playground equipment) and then we rode home. I passed her on a long hill, so she had to get back in front of me. She cut it too close and got the pipe thing that sticks out from her back axle and we both became one with the pavement and our bikes and each other. "Where are you hurt?" I asked, and she said she was hardly hurt anywhere -- one elbow with a scrape about the size of a distorted dime. I had about a dollar's worth on my left knee. We were almost home anyway (a man in his driveway offered help, which we declined with thanks). We almost got in before she started crying, then Cathy was there to give first aid.

That evening was her first Chinese class with Miss Teresa (well, Missus, I guess, but everybody's Miss) at her home on Woodgreen. I got us there almost in time, but they fooled us by having two Woodgreens right next to each other. Some day, these will connect up. This reminds me that we drove out in somewhat the same direction to look at a bunk bed for Sarah, which met with everyone's approval. Her room should be painted (Cathy and Sarah are doing that) before it arrives.

This morning I put her on bus 420, with Brenda driving again. The schedule said she would come home on 400, but Brenda thought that might be a typo. I called the school and left a message telling them about the typo. Had a busy day after that -- talked to the author of the book I'm working on now, then went out to get a newsletter photo at the library, which led me logically to check the CDs for Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion." This led me to the catalog, which then had me end up at the main library in downtown Rochester, which is a nice library! I had an hour of free parking and barely managed to skim a quarter of the classical piano music after choosing a Matthew Passion, and after that I saw their used book shop and... well, I made it back to the car and hurried out the gate. I gave my ticket to the collector, not knowing if it would be free or $2 until she smiled and told me to have a good afternoon.

And then I realized I had to hurry home to wait for Sarah! I try to be home by 3:00, and it was twenty till when I remembered my parental duty. I acted quickly, getting onto 490 going the wrong way, and had to use the inner loop to get turned back around. It was maybe three minutes past three when I got in the house. Then I waited another 25 minutes before the bus came. It was 400 after all, which was interesting. Even more interesting, Sarah wasn't on it. Most likely because of me putting 420 in her head. The driver called, bus-to-bus, and spoke to Brenda, who rolled into view a couple of minutes later with my daughter.

She says she had a good day. Good.

Oh, yeah. Last night just before she went to bed, she came in here and gave me a hug and said "Thanks for a great summer." Sure, Cathy suggested it, but it was still sweet as all get-out.
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modern life

2009-08-31T13:52:15Z

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We took Sarah to see PONYO, along with her friend Lulu and Lulu's friend Si-Chen, who is visiting from China. They sat in back, glued to their Nintendo DS sets, squealing in unison through a networked game of Mario Cart. I watched the ebb and flow of the rain and Cathy watched the road. They wouldn't have looked up if Ponyo had ridden past us on a fish. When one of them said "Stop hitting me!", she meant in the game. Why, back in my day, we really hit each other. With rocks. And mud.

At the theater, I noticed that the sign for the show said that our 1:05 showing was at 1:50. We hunkered in for a bit of a wait. I wandered over to the game room, followed by the girls, who amused themselves at the games without actually spending any money. Sarah wanted to try the claw, the maze, the shooter, the race, and the vending machine with the fake teeth. Around 1:20, I judged it was time to give her four quarters and see what she went for. She went straight for the teeth. At 1:25, Cathy noticed that the tickets actually said 1:05.

We dashed to Auditorium 13, where I hoped we'd missed no more than five minutes or so, and enjoyed the movie, whose characters acted with subtle honesty, showing their thoughts and feelings in real expressions. It was like a rebuke to Disney product -- nobody wore a standard "I AM HAPPY!" or "I AM SAD!" expression, or stopped and sang "I am sad because of this and that, la la la." I expect that Disney executives looked at it and decided that they need to do a CGI comedy about a farting fish.

Afterward, Cathy spoke politely to the theater manager about the incorrectly stated time. The manager gave us five free passes, having just spoken to someone else on the phone about the issue. Someone who wasn't polite at all.

We exited the theater into a beautiful, windy day and drove home, with the girls in the back seat shouting over the same music and the same sound effects. I kept an eye out for deer, seeing none.
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and then

2009-08-14T17:23:20Z

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I went back to Goodwill and bought a roll-up keyboard, which I unbought the same day. Junk! They issued me a gift card and I bought some more LPs.

On Saturday I went to the Red Cross to give blood (double red; type O-). Took about 45 minutes to sign in and wait for my turn, after which things went well enough until I thought I heard, through my earphones, an instruction to bend my arm. Turns out she said "don't" bend my arm. Then the next time the machine started returning plasma to my arm, I started swelling up. I watched it for a few seconds, then the woman saw what was happening, turned off the machine, took everything out, squeezed extra blood out of my arm, bandaged me, put ice on it, and that was it. As they say, the way to pass a blood test is to bleed. I seem to have failed. Almost a week later, there's still some bruising in the area. Next time a blood worker says something I don't fully understand, I'll ask them to repeat it.

Went home. Rested. Mowed the lawn in preparation for being out of the house six days. Did some packing. Next morning, we said goodbye to the cat ("And remember, don't eat all your food up at once!") (Just kidding; she's being looked after.) and started the drive down to Cathy's mom's house in NJ. Sarah's getting marginally better at traveling, but still leaves much to be desired as a long-distance companion. We passed through construction slowdowns and endless merges that would have tested the patience of someone who actually had some, and finally arrived. Sarah headed for the pool, and Cathy and I lugged stuff into the house.

That night I slept on the screened-in deck porch. If the sofa had been six inches longer, it would have probably been a nice night, once the screaming drunk finally got into his pickup and roared off down the road. Next day, we drove some more to the shore house of Cathy's Uncle Al and Aunt Mary. They were great hosts. We went out in Al's boat, and when we got into open water, he turned off the motor and unfurled the jib, so we have actually been sailing now. Coming back, he sat Sarah on his lap and let her turn the wheel.

The next day was a big day. We headed out to the beach for my first ocean wading in about 50 years, and Sarah's first, period. For some reason, nobody heard me ask for the sun screen, and I gave up asking after a couple of times. In retrospect, I should have kept at it. Anyway, Sarah and I frolicked in the surf for about three hours, letting the big waves carry us toward the shore and then trying to find the next big wave. I rated them from one to three. We wanted threes. We drove home, and I was slightly pink. When I woke up the next morning, I was a bit pinker, and the pus-filled blisters had begun to form, mostly on my shoulders. Thanks to the fact I now wear short-sleeved shirts most of the time, my arms never became painfully red, and my legs were mostly in the water, so they were spared too.

The drive back up to Cathy's mom's house was somewhat uncomfortable. Things felt scratchy against my skin. I took it pretty easy and was granted the air mattress to sleep on. If I stayed motionless, the feeling went away after a while and I could sleep, so I got some sleep. We used skin cream and burn spray to try and moderate the discomfort, but I woke up ultimately a little worse.

Which brings us to yesterday, and the arrival of Cathy's sister and our niece, who are staying with Cathy's mom. We moved operations to the Wyndham, where even the soft bed and pillows didn't help after a while. From 3:30 to 5:00 am, I camped in a chair where gravity didn't push me down on the burn zones quite as hard, then I was able to get back in the bed. I felt better in the morning, and the blisters seem smaller. (I had worse blisters when I was about 12, and have managed to avoid them ever since by wary avoidance of the eye of the sky demon.) Cathy and Sarah have been in NYC with her sister, her mother, and our niece, taking in the Museum of Natural History. I had a plan to go to the Odyssia Gallery to try and see their Tricky Cad (more information on Tricky Cad can be seen at my flickr page, where I have some scans and photos I snagged off the web), but my present red, itchy state would be keeping me from that (and from the music store that was my second choice) even if it hadn't turned out to be closed for the summer, and even if they exhibited the work, which they don't, as light degrades it and has apparently already rendered two of Jess's masterful collages unviewable, according to the museum's curator.

So I'm just hanging out. Tomorrow we'll drive home, and I hope I'm up to it. Not that I have a choice. Also, the engine light in Cathy's car is lit up. She called Honda, and they said it was nothing. We'll see about that... eh, readers?
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over the dam

2009-08-04T21:44:43Z

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It's been a good summer so far, especially for Sarah. She went to soccer two nights a week, and her team, the Blue Lightning, came out on top of their rivals, the Orange Tigers, the majority of the time, losing one and tying one and winning the rest. The two teams were originally one team, but they had so many kids signed up, they were able to split in two.

The last week of soccer was also the week of basketball camp in the mornings, so I'd drop Sarah off and get her again two hours later. It wasn't enough time to read a novel, but it was all mine. She enjoyed the camp, and now I think basketball is her second-favorite sport.

This last weekend was Culture Camp, the weekend of a hundred or so girls, all (or most) adopted from China, running around. There were also about nine boys, also Chinese. We talked to a local Chinese teacher who might prove congenial to Sarah for another try at picking up some of the language. She uses singing, and the fact that she brought Sarah fully up to speed in a Chinese song at the camp in about ten minutes was a fairly impressive mark in her favor. This year the bonfire didn't get rained out, so I stood watch at the fire pit as my volunteer duty for the weekend, trying vainly to tell people not to thrust their marshmallows directly into the flames as I toasted marshmallow after marshmallow for myself, the slow and successful way. They were so tasty, it's about all I can do to keep from going up and toasting some over the stove on a fork, like we did when we were kids. Swimming in the lake did get rained out, so we went to the indoor pool of the campus we were at, and that was fine by me. Lastly, we stuck around for the drawing, and actually won stuff. Not once, but twice. So it does happen.

Cathy's off to Oswego now for a two-day conference, so Sarah and I are roughing it. All in all, she only has to be off her usual routine from about now through tomorrow morning, then her mommy comes home for supper tomorrow, and there will be hugs all around. Sarah and I went out today to take stuff back to the library, have lunch at Wendy's, and go hit the Goodwill for a couple more short-sleeve shirts for me. (I'm reinventing myself here as a guy who wears short sleeves. It's a shocking departure to anybody who's known me for a while. Call me a crazy rebel. Please.) The store has expanded into a larger store next door to the old one (they're in a semi-moribund strip mall, which I swear had another thrift shop a few storefronts away the last couple of times I was out, but I can't find it this time). The new place is extremely neat, clean, and spacious, and I'll be heading out there to dig through the LPs when I can do it without the impatient one. Lots of appealing titles there this time. I limited myself to a couple of Three Suns ten-inch LPs and hoped nobody else will want the stuff I had to leave behind. They also have roll-up keyboards, new in the box, and if they'll let me take one out and try it, I might purchase one. Cathy is hereby warned.
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re: re-re-re-re-reading

2009-07-12T15:40:07Z

re: re-re-re-re-reading

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Every day, I read just a few more pages of Jules Feiffer's America. This is the 25th anniversary collection of his comic strips. Inimitable, though often imitated, they are amazingly concentrated and powerful stuff.

Feiffer was already an experienced professional who had worked for Will Eisner by the time he hit the ground running during the Eisenhower administration. His drawings shimmered from one style to another briefly before settling into a style so direct and unvarnished it sometimes seems like no style at all. Though famous for his talking heads, his action drawings are full of life, especially his dancers (male and female), caught at moments of poise and release, like key drawings by a great animator.

Typically existing for about eight panels, his characters breathe nervous life. He sets up small slices of them speaking to us, panel leading to panel, until they have unwittingly revealed their hearts. Sometimes they are us, and the recognition is not always comfortable. Sometimes they are the evil others, only they look and sound a bit more like us than we would like.

They are history lessons for moderns who think the 50s were a sitcom, the 60s were a love-in, and our current problems are something entirely new and novel. His Eisenhower-era strips are insightful, and I'd read many of them so often before that I can't recall them being a revelation. His Kennedy strips are a jolt of cold water to Camelot fantasists. His JFK was vital, sharp, alive, and also shallow and poll-driven. Feiffer stuck it to him mercilessly, depicting him as a choreographed dancer "doin' the Frontier drag." LBJ was a shining knight until he revealed too much of himself; then he was a particularly disappointing political hack. Nixon -- well, we all know Nixon. So did he. Jerry Ford? "Shut up and ski, Jerry." Carter was Jimmy the Cloud.

I haven't been quoting (except for Jerry) because if I start, I won't stop. It's all too good.

I can't recommend this 25th-anniversary collection too highly. It's been more than 25 years since it came out, and I wish he'd do a follow-up. I don't know if reading all his strips in order without the filter of the creator choosing what to include would match the impact of this set, but I'd be willing to find out. Fantagraphics has started the ball rolling, and the volume they've done calls to me from the store shelves. Would that I were wealthier.

originally posted at The New Pals Club Web-Log
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ahhhhh, YES!

2009-07-12T15:36:01Z

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Before it vanishes, as it has other times, do yourself a favor and spend some entertaining time immersed in the scholarly pages of The Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion by Eric Costello.

I can't mention it without bragging that I -- yes, I! -- once had the privilege of serializing this groundbreaking reference in the pages of a monthly cartoon APA (private magazine that went out to the contributors). Once I learned that Costello was doing this, and having seen it, I got his permission to run a few pages of it each issue, with the intention of turning the text files over to him afterward, so that he wouldn't have to type the thing over another time, and could get it published somewhere reputable. My term of office expired before it was completely finished, but by then (or soon after) he took the show to the net where it could be appreciated by a wider audience.

So. You might ask what this wonderful thing is? (I pause while you ask.) It's a guide to all the puzzling references, in-jokes, catch-phrases and ad jingles that enlivened the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, and which now confuse and confound audiences, even as their kids are shouting "TURN OUT THAT LIGHT!" or asking "Was this trip really necessary?" Radio jokes, ration coupons, opaque slang, Texas trivia, aspects of Hollywood stars, and other detritus of the collective unconscious are aired and explicated herein.

A note of caution: It comes and goes. It seems that no sooner has Mr. Costello found a home for this indispensable repository of knowledge than something happens leading to a 404 NOT FOUND message. A Google search will show you all manner of no-longer-viable WBCC locations. We recommend saving the whole thing to your hard drive, and maybe converting it to some format in which you can carry it with you wherever you go. It's that good. Samples:

SOPHIE TURKEY

The Last of the Red-hot Gobblers. A caricature in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937) of Sophie Tucker.

“SO ROUND, SO FIRM, SO FULLY PACKED -- SO SMOOTH AND EASY ON THE DRAW”

One of the many advertising slogans for Lucky Strike cigarettes. Daffy-Duck-as-Danny-Kaye mentions the slogan in Book Revue (Clampett, 1946). The Christopher Columbus character in Hare We Go (McKimson, 1951) yells the phrase in exasperation at King Ferdinand while attempting to prove the Earth is round. Henery Hawk also used the expression when confronted with a fine specimen of alleged chicken tail.

SPARKS, NED (1883-1957)

Cigar-smoking character actor with a dour face who was well-known and often imitated. His movie appearances include 42nd Street, Golddiggers of 1933 in which he playeed the producer, the live-action Alice in Wonderland as the Caterpillar, and Wake Up and Live.

Caricatures of Sparks appear in:

Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) greeting the table of stonefaces

Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940) being buried in sand by Baby Snooks/Fanny Brice

Slap-Happy Pappy (Clampett, 1940) indicating his joy (?) at the news that Eddie Cackler (caricature of Eddie Cantor) is going to be the father of a boy

Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939) as an old crab

It is quite possible that the Rip Van Winkle character in Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938) is a Sparks caricature as well, given the character’s voice.

These are three successive entries, taken from the page I had it open to when I started this. I can't promise that the internal links work, but it gives you the names and the meanings -- there's enough there to satisfy your curiosity and make you want to watch all the cartoons again.

originally posted at The New Pals Club Web-Log
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a step forward

2009-07-04T14:25:51Z

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Everything's temporary. I mow the lawn, it grows back. I wash dishes, they get dirty again. Don't get me started on the cat litter.

Sarah and I went out to Target so she could show me bikes, and she pleaded for a single-speed model that was marked $65. She offered to put in $20 of her own money. I countered that I'd get it if she put in $35, and she agreed. Then we got a new helmet to replace the other new helmet that dropped off the earth, and once again, she's happy to leap on the bike and go off in search of playmates and adventures.

She brought Julia back to the house, and we all jumped on the trampoline for a while. When it was almost time for Julia to go home, her dad showed up to collect her, and before I could see them off, her mom showed up to get both of them.

Cathy had Friday off from work, so we officially wrapped up last Christmas by putting the grill together that I'd bought for her. She unboxed most of the pieces and helped with the one piece of heavy lifting, and after that I made Sarah happy by letting her help with the fiddly bits. Then I hauled out the outdoor table and umbrella, finding Sarah's next-to-newest helmet in the process. It hadn't dropped off the earth -- just behind the freezer. I set it all up, tested the gas lines for leaks (using soapy water and watching for bubbles), and just after 9:00 pm, all systems were go. Cathy made a cheeseburger for Sarah and hot dogs for everybody. I don't know about the burger, but the hot dogs I had were super, on buns toasted over the grill.

Just before I finished, I ran in and got a little bottle of Coke for us to share, because THIS is AMERICA, buddy!

This morning, I looked out the basement window at the patio. It's all still there, as is an equal volume of cardboard packing material in the sun room. Progress.
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day zero

2009-06-23T22:26:23Z

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I greeted Sarah as she got off the bus, taking a picture of her last trip of the school year. I chatted briefly with bus driver Brenda. Sarah headed off to play with friends at the far corner of the rectangle formed by three sides of Round Trail and one of Stuyvesant. This morning I had reset my alarm to a later time.

The long weekend has begun.

Sarah brought her yearbook home, and it's a nice little volume full of color pictures. I couldn't see any I had taken, but there are at least three in there with Sarah in them. I also located various members of her soccer team (which played its last game on Saturday), the Purple Dolphins.

Cathy pointed out to me that Sarah has a coupon good for a free game of bowling (and shoes) every day, all summer, with a reduced rate for my games and shoes. This is a sweet ticket which I plan to use.

Previous summers have consisted in large part of Sarah telling me she's bored and demanding entertainment. I expect some of that, but she is able to hop on her bike and go 'around the block' (it's actually two blocks) until she runs into somebody to play with. She has a watch now, so I can tell her when to be back.

I'm expecting a jolly season, with mini golf, bowling, Sea Breeze Park, and other activities.
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