A New Season Begins

As I wait for Michigan football to start this weekend, I am reminded about the string of luck my sports teams have had of late:

• Fall 2009: Michigan football starts 4-0, ends 0-7.

• March 2010: Michigan basketball struggles through the season but is poised to knock top ranked OSU out of the Big 10 tournament. Leading by two with 2.2 seconds left, Michigan opts not to defend the desperation half court heave by OSU, which of course goes in as the buzzer sounds.

• April 2010: After skating to the best record in hockey, the Washington Capitals claim a 3-1 playoff lead over the Montreal Canadiens, only to lose three straight and be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

• May 2010: After claiming the best record in the NBA and delivering the Celtics their worst home loss in playoff history, the Cleveland Cavaliers go into the tank, get eliminated from the playoffs, and lose LeBron James to the Miami Heat.

• August 2010: The Washington Nationals shelve their franchise pitcher with Tommy John surgery, ending him for both this season and next.

What fresh hell will Michigan send me to this season, I wonder....

Another Picture Dump

OK, here's a random dump of pictures from Summer 2010. Enjoy and, as always, click on the pictures to embiggen.....

First, earlier this summer we went strawberry picking, and here are the girls with their haul:


Then the other day, I got a bit fed up with all the toys, doll clothes, and whatever strewn all over the floor in the girls' room. So I hollered that they need to clean their room and in particular GET ALL THAT STUFF PICKED UP OFF THE FLOOR!! So, here was Thalia's response:


Which, I have to admit, accomplished exactly what I had asked. I have no idea where her poor doll is going to sleep, though.

Then Thalia went out and spent all her saved-up allowance money on a new piggybank:

She explained to me that it would help her save money. Hmmm.

And then it just can't be a picture dump without silly cat pictures. Here's Healy helping to load the dishwasher:


And Healy and Pearl fighting over a ribbon:

- Gimme that!
- No! It's mine!

And then finally here is Nelson bravely defending all of us during a particularly loud thunderstorm this summer:

(Nelson is the black thing barely sticking out from under the couch.....)

Bathroom Before and After

Ok, here's this weekend's little project -- fixing up the half bathroom a bit. It desperately needed some storage space, and I've never been a fan of the pedestal sink -- that sink is too big for such a little bathroom. Plus, the faucet on that sink is terminally drippy, no matter how often I've tried to repair it. It's gotten to the point where Abra tells me I'm hurting the Earth by not fixing the drip (I'm actually a bit more bothered about the drip hurting my wallet...).

So the sink comes out, and a small vanity goes in. Also, an etagere goes over the toilet. Nothing fancy, just a quick update of the bathroom.

Here's the "before" picture:


And here's the "after" picture:


And, uh, ok, a new toilet seat cover is on the shopping list now, too....

Oh, and I finally got fed up with that stupid switch for the reading lamp by my chair. It was one of the little wheelie in-line thingies:


and it was very flaky. So I threw it out and spliced in this great big pushbutton switch that looks like it was left over from one of the Apollo missions:

Now that's a man's switch! Much better....

Bathroom redecorating follies

Today's activities:

1) go to home depot in the morning to get replacement switch for lamp.
2) notice that bathroom vanities are on sale.
3) come back home, try to install switch. fail (don't ask....).
4) discuss vanities with wife. decide to get one.
5) go back to home depot, stare at vanities for a while, pick one out.
6) wrestle vanity into car, drive home, wrestle vanity into bathroom.
7) realize vanity is 1/2" too tall to fit.
8) wrestle vanity back into car.
9) go back to home depot, wrestle vanity out of car and take to return line.
10) realize i have brought the wrong receipt. talk guy into reimbursing my credit card anyway.
11) find smaller vanity, last one in stock. purchase.
12) wrestle vanity into car.
13) drive to target to find an etagere.
14) find etagere. last one in stock. purchase.
15) wrestle etagere into car, drive home.
16) wrestle vanity out of car and into house.
17) wrestle etagere out of car and into house.
18) have wife make me a vodka tonic.

i can't wait for the next two steps:

19) find out vanity is too small, and
20) find out etagere is missing one bolt critical to assembly.

and i still never fixed that lamp switch....

Thalia's Summer Writings

Just thought I'd share some of the writings of #2 this summer. As always, just click on an image to see a bigger (more readable) version....

In June, she and her sister went to "Circle Sampler Camp", which is a week long day camp where each day they go to different places in University Circle -- the Art Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Historical Society, the Botanical Gardens, etc. They loved it, and kept a journal of what they did each day. Here's Thalia's journal:



Very nice, let's see what they did on Day 1:



Oh my. I certainly hope they didn't push the little old lady down the stairs.

Anyway, on to other writings. I came home one evening and found this on the table, a song that she had written out:



And it goes on to page 2:



I think what sticks in my head about this is the image of her sitting at the table and determinedly printing her words, all of them, carefully and neatly, onto the page. I think if you want to learn what makes Thalia tick, it's that example. That's our girl.

But perhaps what makes my heart want to burst the most is this little booklet she made for me for Father's Day (sorry for the different background levels, the scanner didn't pick things up quite right...):

(my favorite color is grey....)

I think this little booklet is going to be saved, oh, just about forever. Thanks, honey....