michael.newtopia.com
10:16pm February 26, 2005 ~ close call
Thursday night I herded Kahler into the truck so that we could go to dinner. After I strapped her in, she said, "Daddy, I love you thi-i-i-s much!" and stretched out her arms. I told her, "I love you thi-i-i-i-i-s much!" and stretched out my arms. Then as I was closing her door so that I could get in, she said, "And I love you thi-i-i-i-i-i-i-s...." and then her fingers got caught in the clamshell back door as I closed it. I have not heard her scream like that since she got her very first vaccination shots. I freaked out, and for a moment forgot how to open the door again to free her fingers. Once I fumbled the door open I gave her fingers a quick check before unstrapping her and rushing her into the house. Through some miracle her fingers did not look badly injured, and she could still move them. It turns out they only got caught between the plastic trim that borders the edge of the doors and not inside the door jam itself. After applying some ice and much comforting, I got her settled down, and everything was fine.
Later that night I had trouble sleeping just thinking about what might have happened if her fingers were extended an inch further. Since then I've found new appreciation for the driver side of my truck not having a clamshell door, which previously I had been citing as the only thing I didn't like about my truck.
- 238 -
1:41pm December 15, 2004 ~ horse
Morgan bought a stuffed stand-up horse that Kahler has been coveting for Christmas. When Rudolph saw Morgan carrying it from the car, he lost his puppy brain and started barking like crazy. He calmed down considerably once the horse was actually inside and he didn't sense any kind of threat. Then I started petting it and talking to it and generally making Rudolph as jealous as possible. He tried using his ample nose to nudge my hand away from the horse, and when that didn't work he started nipping at it and knocking it over. Dogs are fun.
- 237 -
8:11am December 2, 2004 ~ rudolph
We watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on t.v. last night. As usual, Kahler was acutely attuned to the possibility of any scary parts. She hadn't seen it before, but she knew exactly when to bury her head and ask "Will you please turn it off?" prior to the Abominable Snowmonster making any scene. This was in spite of me telling her up front that Mr. Snowmonster is pretty cranky at first but turns out ok in the end. I guess she didn't buy it. I have to admit he is pretty scary. I remember him unnerving me when I was a kid (say, 18 or so). Watching it again now, I think what really makes the snowmonster a freaky threat is the scene where he has Rudolph and the gang trapped in the cave, and Clarice wails, "Oh, why doesn't he get it over with?" Whoa, "Get it over with?" This thing is seriously going to kill them all!
- 236 -
12:50pm September 29, 2004 ~ chipmunk
There's a chipmunk on the deck stuffing acorns into its cheeks. The other day it was out there while Malcolm was sitting on the porch. Malcolm crouched in the corner and tracked it, and when the chipmunk got close to the screen Malcolm ran across the porch towards it. The chipmunk made a high-pitched squeal and took off. Poor Mal, no rodent for you.
- 235 -
2:05pm August 5, 2004 ~ pretty much nailed it
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
GWB
- 234 -
3:21pm August 4, 2004 ~ dali atomicus
An explanation of how Dali Atomicus was shot.
- 233 -
8:30pm July 19, 2004 ~ fire truck driver
Good god it's been a long time since I made a post.
Kahler's latest aspiration: fire truck driver. About a week and half ago she and I were walking Rudolph, and she noticed a junky old truck that's parked down the street. She said, "That is a pretty truck!" (This struck a chord for me since I've been on the lookout for a junky old truck myself. Good to know that Kahler will be supportive of that endeavor.) Then she said, "I want to be a truck driver when I grow up." I am a proud papa! A few days later she decided her specialty would be "fire truck driver." She's restated this goal daily for the past week.
- 232 -
4:59pm February 3, 2004 ~ 105-year-old neighbor
More neighbor information: A couple of weeks ago, I met our across-the-street neighbor for the first time when I went over to find out who ran into Lynn's car (a separate story). He is 105 years old and has lived in that house for 50 years, so I'm guessing he's been there since it was built. (Our house was built in 1949.)
We are definitely the young'ns around here.
- 231 -
4:51pm February 3, 2004 ~ house info
Someone who lives on our street was working the polls when Morgan went to vote this afternoon. He referred to our house as the Crenshaw house, and said it was then owned by the Lovetts (sp?), and then the Lees. Morgan said he made it sound as if the Lees only owned the house for a short time, although I thought they had been the owners since the 1970s. Interesting.
- 230 -
9:03am December 23, 2003 ~ hello tarot
For small mediums.
- 228 -
8:51am December 23, 2003 ~ in passing
Overheard, in passing.
- 227 -
12:19pm December 18, 2003 ~ stupid squirrel
We had the world's stupidest squirrel stuck in one of our downspouts this morning. Morgan heard it in there as she was leaving the house. I pulled off the extension and bottom elbow, and exposed the squirrel's tail hanging out of the end of the downspout. I tapped near its tail and it twitched a little. At that point I thought the squirrel was near dead. I left it alone for a while, and when I checked on it later its tail was still hanging out. I noticed the opening of the downspout was pinched in a little so I pried it open wider. When I did that the squirrel freaked out and started scrambling up the downspout. It sounded like it had a lot more energy than I had first assumed, so I backed off and watched. It kept sliding down to the end of the downspout. At one point most of its body was hanging out, but it kept scampering back up and sliding back down, resting with its tail and butt hanging out. All it had to do was let go and it would drop right out. I got a hose and trickled some water down the gutter, but that just freaked it out more instead of encouraging it to let go. So I just started talking to it, trying to calm it down, and then it finally fell out and scampered away. At least it got me to clean the downspout -- the bottom elbow was completely clogged with dirt and roots and crud.
- 226 -
8:07pm December 7, 2003 ~ diebold
The Diebold story fascinates me. So many problems that are so obvious that it makes my head swim. Now Bob Cringely sums up just one of the problems nicely:
Diebold makes a lot of ATM machines. They make machines that sell tickets for trains and subways. They make store checkout scanners, including self-service scanners. They make machines that allow access to buildings for people with magnetic cards. They make machines that use magnetic cards for payment in closed systems like university dining rooms. All of these are machines that involve data input that results in a transaction, just like a voting machine. But unlike a voting machine, every one of these other kinds of Diebold machines -- EVERY ONE -- creates a paper trail and can be audited. Would Citibank have it any other way? Would Home Depot? Would the CIA? Of course not. These machines affect the livelihood of their owners. If they can't be audited they can't be trusted. If they can't be trusted they won't be used.
Now back to those voting machines. If EVERY OTHER kind of machine you make includes an auditable paper trail, wouldn't it seem logical to include such a capability in the voting machines, too? Given that what you are doing is adapting existing technology to a new purpose, wouldn't it be logical to carry over to voting machines this capability that is so important in every other kind of transaction device?
This confuses me. I'd love to know who said to leave the feature out and why?
Next week: the answer.
Great cliffhanger.
- 225 -
2:09pm November 24, 2003 ~ fridge
A momentous day yesterday: Morgan and I moved our refrigerator into the kitchen! We had to turn the thing upside-down to get it through one of the doorways, but we got it in there. Hooray! This is the first time we've had a refrigerator in our kitchen since we moved from Texas a year and a half ago.
We also moved a bunch of dishes into the new wall cabinets. This morning I was actually able to fix a bowl of cereal without going into three different rooms to assemble all the necessary parts! This will take some getting used to.
- 224 -
8:56pm November 14, 2003 ~ mini-macintosh
This afternoon we took our old stove to the Salvation Army. It was a cool-looking stove, but Morgan said it had to go, and we need a downdraft model in the new kitchen anyway.
The Salvation Army was holding a warehouse sale, so we poked around and found a few treasures: a Peanuts book I don't have; some measuring spoons; and this miniature Performa 5200 that we guessed (incorrectly) was a clock. Apparently they were actually made as a toy for "American Girl" dolls. Still, not a bad find for a buck.
- 223 -
7:43pm October 27, 2003 ~ kitchen work
Work on our kitchen started last week. Photographic documentation of the process.
- 222 -
1:38pm October 16, 2003 ~ let's get physical
I had a physical this morning. I imagine that's the first complete checkup I've had since I was 10. I had my vitals taken, an EKG, a urinalysis, a hernia test, a prostate exam, blood work, a TB skin test, assorted other poking and prodding, and later I'm having a chest X-ray. It was all kinds of fun. Thankfully I seem to be in pretty good shape, pending a few more results.
- 221 -
1:29pm October 16, 2003 ~ stupid cubs
i hate baseball
- 220 -
10:08pm October 13, 2003 ~ world series tickets
Bernie called this morning and told me the Yankees were putting their World Series tickets on sale at 12:30pm. We got ready shortly before 12:30 and starting reloading the appropriate Ticketbastard page until the tickets were available. We decided to try exclusively for Game 7 tickets. I got a request in for four best available tickets via each of two different browsers. Bernie did the same. Three of our requests ending up erroring out, but one of mine kept refreshing on the "searching" page:
Your estimated wait time is less than 6 minutes
Okay, not too bad. But then:
Your estimated wait time is more than 15 minutes
Crap. But then:
Your estimated wait time is less than 8 minutes
Woo-hoo! But then:
Your estimated wait time is more than 15 minutes
D'oh. Anyway, this went on for a while, until finally I got this message after about 7 minutes (turns out the original estimate was pretty close):
Your estimated wait time is less than 1 minute
And then four tickets showed up! I couldn't believe it! I somehow managed to enter about five pages worth of information and completed the order. It's hard to type accurately when you're shaking. Then I called Bernie and celebrated.
Amazingly enough, about fifteen minutes later, Bernie's wife also managed to get two tickets for the same game. So now we have six tickets for GAME 7 OF THE WORLD SERIES!
But I'm still rooting for the Red Sox.
- 219 -
© 2000-2008 m pohl
all rights reserved
