Thursday, February 07, 2008
"My guy" is it
It looks like McCain will be the GOP nominee. He's the one that the candidate selectors kept matching me with. Ugh. So basically we're down to three liberals running for president. Truthfully, I am on the more liberal side of the Republicans, but McCain has some huge issues which make him not so appealing to me. However, I will not do what many conservative Republicans say they plan to do this election, which is to stay home. I think it's ignorant when people cut off their noses to spite their face. For some I suspect it's their way of abdicating all responsibility. I can't do that. I figure, if you can't bring yourself to vote for McCain, then at least make it a point to vote against Clinton/Obama.
Emma and Daddy time
It was a Popi visit Thursday so we spent a while at the store this afternoon. Emma wanted to go outside and play. She led Daddy upstairs to the porch over the store. They found some cool toys to play with up there. Mommy stayed inside where it was warm.



Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Fraidy cat
Emma is easily scared by TV shows. All it takes is ominous or spooky music to scare her; it doesn't really matter what the action is. I'm talking about children's shows. We still limit her to the same old six shows. Now she's to the point where she wants me to sit with her every time she's about to view a new Backyardigans. I've mentioned before how she'll hide her face behind me. If you ask her why she's scared she'll say, "I'm just hiding." Now she's taken to sitting beside me and taking my arm and holding it in front of her eyes. She'll hold it up there and then peek over it. It's pretty funny.
One Laptop Per Child XO

Perhaps you've heard of the One Laptop Per Child program, or seen it on the news. It's a program meant to provide laptops to children in third world countries. Originally they claimed they would make a $100 laptop. It actually turned out to be $200. The software is open source (Linux) to save costs and the computer can be charged without electricity. Wi-Fi is built in. Recently OLPC ran a program where you could buy one in the U.S. if you bought a second one for a third world child. A friend of mine got one. She wanted to use it for checking email and surfing the internet while traveling. Once she got it she found out that it wouldn't do what she wanted so easily. It surfs the internet just fine, but she couldn't figure out how to save or print anything. She loaned it to me in hopes I'd figure these problems out for her.

I played with it for a while. My assessment is that it's a great computer for kids. First of all, the keyboard is for small hands and it's not touch typing. Secondly, it's built to network easily with other XO's, especially in a classroom environment. It has lots of learning tools built in. The problem is that it's not easily compatible with any formats most people are already using. While I was able to transfer files back and forth on a thumb drive, it wouldn't open a .jpg and it wasn't compatible with .doc. That will slow most adults down to a halt. There are ways around these problems and I referred my friend to a good forum for adults who are using these machines, OLPC News Forum. I'm hoping she'll spend the time to sort it all out. The worst case scenario is she gives it back for them to ship to the third world.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Every child's dream party
When you were a child did you ever dream of eating all the sweets you wanted? Being able to grab candy from anywhere? Eating cake, then cupcakes, followed by donuts and cookies? Did you dream of eating all the pizza and cookies and chips and chocolate you wanted?

That happened to us yesterday. My brother-in-law's girlfriend (the lottery winner) threw a party for six people with birthdays in February. M, his brother and my niece were included as honorees. It would be an understatement to say that she went all out. I can't even imagine how much she spent. Tons of food, fresh flowers, mylar balloons, gifts for all the birthday people, and gifts for everyone. I was honestly dumbfounded when I entered the room. I had never seen anything like it.

We didn't actually eat everything presented to us. First, we chose our own lunch. Afterward we were each served a slice of chocolate cake and a cupcake. Then we were presented with a plate with a donut, cookies and meringues on it. It was...overwhelming. Needless to say we doggie bagged a lot. Then we were given more to take home on top of it. It was mind-boggling.

Here are pictures. I urge you to click on them so you can see the larger versions and take it all in...

Each person with a birthday got fresh flowers and balloons, and tons of other stuff.



Punch fountain, cupcake tree, donuts, cookies, candies...


The spread; pizza, wraps, chips and veggies.


Presents for all six birthday people, purchased by the hostess.


Typical place setting. Wrapped Valentine candy with two more bags of candy. Silk flowers, valentine ornaments, cups with our names on them and other stuff.


Parting Valentines bags for the birthday crew.


Decorations at the entrance. We inherited those.


Our kitchen table was bare when we left for the party. Now...not so much. Emma got her own special balloons.



I would have blogged this last night but I knew it would take forever to process the pictures and tell the story. Tonight, we had leftover wraps. This morning my brother-in-law and his girlfriend boarded a bus for Texas, to visit her family.
The party people
Emma with her aunt and Grandma.


Helping Daddy open his presents.


My niece and her friend having fun with helium. She turns 13 today.


The lottery winners, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, who was our hostess.


Emma approves.

I admit it...
I rooted for the Giants. Like many people I am so dead-assed tired of hearing about the Patriots. Yeah, their eighteen game winning streak is quite an achievement and would have been nicely capped with a Super Bowl win. But damn, they've won enough. I yearned for the Giants to take them down a peg. And they did, and it was glorious!

Then I felt remorse. I felt sorry for Brady, who is clearly an awesome quarterback. I felt sorry for Belichick, who looked like he would rather have been dead than give a post-game interview.

I also felt sorry that the New Yorkers would get to claim the win. I've had enough of them too. Giants are an NFC East team and conference rivals. I hate them. Eh, cognitive dissonance all around.

Oh, and my favorite commercials were the Pepsi one with Justin Timberlake and the Tide talking stain. I laughed out loud at both. Seeing Timberlake get racked three times in a row was riotously funny. The talking stain was simply brilliant.
Minty Fresh
"Ewww, look Mommy!" Emma holds up her finger.

"What is it?" I suspect I know.

"I don't know"

"Where did it come from?"

"My nose."

"That's a booger."

"A booger. It's a candy cane booger."

??????????

"It's shaped like a candy cane."

I quickly grabbed a tissue.