Peace Like A River


It was a wide river, mistakable for a lake or even an ocean unless you'd been wading and knew its current. Somehow I'd crossed it... Now I saw the stream regrouped below, flowing on through what might've been vineyards, pastures, orhards... It flowed between and alongside the rivers of people; from here it was no more than a silver wire winding toward the city. - Leif Enger, Peace Like A River

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Well, a big win for the Gopher womens' basketball team last night. They beat a very good Duke team to go to the Final Four. I'm not much of a fan of womens basketball, but this was an impressive game. They got absolutely jobbed by horrible officiating, but they didn't let that get to them. They had a lead, but Duke kept coming back and coming back, ended up tied late in the game, but they didn't let the pressure get to them. They always came up with big plays to keep the lead.

Nice clear sunny skies here today, but rather cool. Supposed to warm by the weekend though.

Baseball season is starting already. Eek. Twins have same old issues, questions about pitching, and lack of power hitting. I would like to see the Red Sox and Cubs in the World Series.

Monday, March 29, 2004

Looks like John and I will go down to Nashville in April to see Brian and Nassim, along with some others. Rhonda wasn't sure how'd Hanna away from her. She seems attached to Rhonda lately. Plus John might be jealous if I go off with her.

The Gopher womens bb team is in the womens regional final. That's the farthest they've ever gone in the tourney. They have a couple of very good players.

We're back to some cooler weather. Easy to get spoiled with temps around 60 in late March.

So during the media hubbub about the fighting in Pakistan between the army and some terrorists, maybe had Al Kaiduh honcho surrounded, etc... there were some reports with headlines like "army has terrorist main hideout surrounded"

ha, I just had to laugh. Hideout? So this was all some B-movie western? Gene Autry was going to swoop in and get the drop on the bank robbers/cattle rustlers?

Sunday, March 28, 2004

John was up around 5:30 this morning, and came padding into the bedroom. Rhonda laid him back down, not sure if he went back to sleep. He was back in the room a little before 6:30. I had to get up anyway, to get to the church early for orchestra. (It sounded good this morning.) So, John was getting rather tired and we just laid both of them down. He should sleep. He was tired yesterday too though, and didn't go to sleep.

When I got home, Hanna was playing with one of her dolls. I was in the kitchen and she came in holding it, and she came over to me, tapped me on the leg, then said to the dolly "Daddy". Ha, she was telling her dolly that I was Daddy!

Rhonda has been showing Hanna how to do the "here is the church, here is the steeple, open the door and see all the people". She can do it all by herself! Maybe not exactly right, but she does it so cute!

I've started reading War and Peace. I've had the book for years, figured it was about time I get to it.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Another fun morning of swim lessons. While I was home with Hanna and John was gone, she had fun driving the little Tigger truck around the kitchen. She went around quite a few times.

When we were at the pool, I was holding her as we waited to get in, and she kinda pulled on my ears, and it hurt so I said gentle, hanna, and she started petting me nicely, like we show her to do with Ellie, and then she gave me a kiss on my ear. Ha.

Luckily got a changing room right away so got out of there quickly. There was a crowd waiting when we left. There are only 6 rooms, there should be more.

A gentle rain here right now.

I've started trying to teach myself Russian. Am working on the alphabet and pronounciation. Have learned a few words. It is easier than English in that in Russian words pretty much are spelled like they sound, and sound like they are spelled. There isn't the confusion in English like white and might and mite, etc... It looks like in Russian there is no Q-sound, no J/soft G-sound, no true W-sound and no H-sound. There are four different letters with some kind of "ya" sound (ya, yo, yeh, and you) and about seven letters that in English would be a compound spelling, like zh, sh, ch, sh-ch, ts, etc... giving Russian its distinctive sound.

The hard part is going to be like in any language, the grammar rules. The different endings based on case and gender, etc... Oh, Russian also has no articles (the or an) and does not really have the verb "to be" So, to say Alexander is a doctor, you would say "Alexander doctor". The "is a" is inferred.

Friday, March 26, 2004

How nice it is to feel warmth again. Temps have been around 60 for the last couple days. Will be nice again today, so I'm sure the kidlings will be out. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot of rain though.

We took the side of John's bed off, and the side of Hanna's crib kinda came undone, so we have this little portable side thingie in there. But, with that, the little monkeys didn't take long to discover they could get down by themselves, so we've moved to the next stage of kidhood. Which is, in the mornings now often we'll get little visitors poking their heads in the bedroom to say good morning. It's fun though, sometimes they'll come lay down with us and snuggle.

The other night when we were outside and it was getting dark, I showed John where the crescent moon was right next to a very bright Venus. He liked that, and then wanted to go inside and watch his Baby Galileo video.

I finished reading "Nothing Like It In The World" by Stephen Ambrose. About the building of the first railroad from Omaha to California. Quite the accomplishment, going through the mountains, across the vast prairie, etc...

I came across this web archive site, that seems to have archived a whole lot of the entire Web since 1996. You can look up sites and see what their pages looked like at the time. You can find my site there, and see what photos I first had on the front page!

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Had a fun day at home with the kidlings yesterday. After an oatmeal breakfast, we played for a bit at home, then I took them over to the bacon and egg playplace at Northtown mall. There weren't many kids there, so lots of room to run around. John had fun chasing with a couple kids there. Then, we did our usual two rides.

Then, stopped by Arbys and got some lunch to take home. And found when I got home they didn't put a sandwich in. Argh. I've been there twice, and both times they had trouble just taking the order. I think I'll avoid that place.

Both kids took a nice nap. I napped for a bit, read some, watched some of the James Bond marathon on spiketv. Then, had a supper of pierogis. Mmm. After supper we went outside and rode trikes around. The neighbors were out too. We're all coming out of hibernation. It was about 60 degrees yesterday.

I had orchestra practice then last night. We play Sunday morning. We might be getting some more strings players! yay.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

I'm home with the kids today. There's a bug going around Sue's house, and she thought it might be too much to take care of them plus chase John and Hanna around. So, I took the day off. I'll probably take them over to the bacon and egg place in a bit. It might get to 60 here today, so might go to the park too.

Hanna had two shots yesterday, so she was a bit out of sorts in the evening.

John's watching the Little People video right now.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Temps could get above 50 today, and we could have as many as 4 days in a row now with temps above 50. That would be the first time since November with that long a stretch. Yay. Not quite warm enough to go to the lake though.

Hanna is going to go get a hepatitis shot today. I'm sure she'll tell me all about her ouchie.

John wanted to play the CareBears game last night. He likes that game. He likes 'Professor Coldheart". It's so cute the way he says that. And when we land on the Professor Coldheart space, we shiver and say brrrrrr.

The Twins might not be on tv this season, at least not at first. They started their own cable company to get more tv revenue, but haven't been able to reach a deal to get the channel on the local cable companies. The cable companies say the Twins are asking for too much money. So, may end up just getting them on the radio.

Monday, March 22, 2004

John woke up at 2 am crying, not sure what was bothering him. I went in there, and the first thing he said was "I want to watch" (a video). Heh, not sure if he was half asleep yet, or dreaming, or what. I held him a bit and he went back to sleep. The other night he was crying as well, I went in there and he was sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed. Maybe he fell out, though I'm not sure how he got down at that end. He fell out the first night we took off the side, and then I put a chair up against the side of the bed, and he hadn't fallen out since.

Lately Hanna has been saying "oh no, stuck in the mud" and then she'll say "oh bother." They have a Little People video that came with one of their Little People toys (maybe the farm the Freys gave for Christmas once) One of the stories on there a train gets stuck in the mud, and John says that a lot, so Hanna has kind of picked up on that.

We took them for a stroller ride/trike ride to the park before supper last night. Brr, it was a bit cold. Supposed to warm up this week though.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Both kids enjoyed their swimming lessons again. And again, Hanna and I got lucky and got a changing room right away, so we were out relatively quickly. When we got home, we had soup for lunch (the kids had the Amish noodles Great-Grandma Oma sent.) Also had some bread and chips and fruit.

Hanna was quite tired, she'll sleep well. John seemed tired too, I think he'll sleep but I just checked on him and he was awake.

The last day or two I've seen Hanna nod her head, instead of saying 'yes'. Ha, I wonder where she got that from. I haven't ever seen John do that.

Awhile I ago, I kinda got Hanna's neck caught in a zipper, and I think Grandma caught her too once, so now Hanna is paranoid about zippers. When you go to zip her up, she'll stick her head way back so her neck doesn't get an ouchie again. heh.

I gotta go make some copies for the writing group tonight, will give them chapter 5.

Congratulations to Russ and Missy and their new little girl! How exciting!

Friday, March 19, 2004

had a deacons mtg last night, got home around 11.

Sometimes when Hanna does something a little naughty, and I say something to her, she can be a two-year old. She'll get kinda pouty, or she'll kick at something or throw something down and then just look at me, like "ok, what are you going to do now?" It's rather funny sometimes, and I have to keep from laughing.

tomorrow is the start of spring. whee, big deal. The landscape is all mud and brown. no living plants yet, cool, windy. I want to live in a desert.

The Timberpuppies have not played well the last couple weeks. Seems to be heading for another first round playoff exit, for the *eighth* year in a row.

I have just about all the Redemption cards now, except for a couple promo cards. There are somewhere around 1300 cards now. I just got the latest starter E/F deck. This weekend I'll get them into the card protectors and sorted.

There are an amazing number of radio stations on the internet, (that broadcast their content on the web too) From all over the world. Sometimes it's fun to just find a station in another country and listen. The different languages are fun. Yesterday I went looking for some in Russia, and found a station from Moscow, and it was fun to hear the Russian language and their pop music. Brought back memories of driving around over there, when the drivers had the radio on.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Had orchestra practice last night. We were joined by another violin player, a high school gal. Yay, I'm not alone. And, there might be another joining too. Wow, an actual mini-string section. We already a cello player.

I keep forgetting to say, there's been a bus strike here for about a week now. True, there are some people greatly affected, the poor and those who don't have cars. But, the odd thing is traffic during the rush hours doesn't seem terribly affected. Traffic levels seem about the same. In fact, it hasn't been too bad lately, but I don't know if that's because some people are off on vacations or spring break or something.

The issue is the usual one for unions, they seem to think money grows on trees. The funding for the Metro Transit comes in large part from taxpayers, and health care costs are going through the roof, like it is for everyone. They want to have the unions pay more for their share of the cost, and the union sqwuaked, saying it was a pay cut, etc... Well, yeah, it is in a sense, but welcome to reality. It's the same for everyone. They do get insanely generous retirement benefits, and the government doesn't want to keep making the taxpayers pay for everything.

So, the union is about to miss their first paycheck, so will be interesting to see how much longer this goes.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

This morning as we were leaving, I said "bye Ellie" as I usually do, and the kids usually say it too then, and today Hanna went over and petted Ellie and gave her a kiss.

The kids were out splashing in the water yesterday and their boots got very wet. They're still not dry, so had to take their old boots to Sue's house.

Rhonda took John yesterday to a screening as part of the Anoka County's early childhood evaluation program. (Which is quite a service, Ward County doesn't have anything like this. This is quite a change, actually getting something for all our tax dollars)

They did some hearing things, some speech things, etc... but John was a bit of a behavior problem at times. Getting into things, etc... the person stacked some blocks and asked John if he could stack his, and he'd knock her blocks over...

We just don't know how we can get John to behave. This sort of thing seems to happen more when he goes somewhere, when he's some place unfamiliar. It's like he doesn't see any boundaries so zoom he just gets wild. I don't know if it's related to his being from an orphanage or what exactly.

As the next part of the evaluation, maybe they'd have some ideas on how to help him past that.

On the good side, his hearing seems to be acceptable, though it looks like both tubes are out now. He's doing good in some parts of speech (like r's) and still needs to develop in others.

On the growth charts, he's just barely at the bottom of the one curve for weight, and just off the bottom of the curve for height. (Maybe it's the other way around, I forget)

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Rhonda ran over to the clinic this morning for a cholesterol check or something, so I didn't leave for work till she returned. So, I played with the kiddies for a bit. We got in some good crashing into tar-wagons. Lady likes to do slow crashes sometimes.

I've started reading Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. (He was killed in a car accident not too long ago.) It's a different sort of book, in that the text doesn't have paragraphs. It's all kind of one long block of text. Ordinarily I wouldn't care for that sort of thing, and if this was stream of consciousness, which it isn't, I wouldn't touch it. But, the prose is so good, and there are black and white photos interspersed throughout, related to the story, and it all makes for a good read. And, there is an actual story.

The narrator is not named, and meets a guy name Austerlitz in a train station, they continue to meet over the years, and Austerlitz tells his story. His parents were Jewish and sent him to England at a young age in 1939, and Austerlitz travels across to Europe to find his past and make sense of the horrors of WWII.

Nice and sunny here right now, but snow is supposed to blow in just in time for the afternoon commute home. Erg.

Monday, March 15, 2004

Oh yeah, nursery duty last night. The kids enjoyed it immensely. We didn't have any customers again, the kids had the run of the place.

The concert itself sounded very good. It was a concert symphony band from Moody Bible Institute, and I went out and caught a few bits of it. There were quite a few members, they filled the stage. I heard some Aaron Copeland, some Night on Bald Mountain, as well as some Christian tunes. Lots of string players!

(As we were leaving though, someone I hadn't seen before came in with a little boy, and asked if we had a diaper so he could change the boy. We gave him one of Hanna's diapers, and waited for him to finish so we could lock up the room.)

There weren't any balls in there, I don't know where they all went. I wanted to play catch with John, or roll the ball on the floor with him, so I went over to the toddler room. There weren't any balls there either, don't know where they all were, except there was one, a nice big ball, so I took that back.

We rolled it on the floor, which both kids enjoyed. Then, John climbed up in the little slide thing, and he had a blast throwing the ball out of there. I'd throw it back in there, and it would bonk him on the head, or roll around in there, and he thought that was great fun, and would shriek with laughter when he threw it back out.

Rhonda and Hanna were over by the table for awhile doing some coloring. Hanna really likes that.

At one point John asked "where's Hanna" and Hanna heard that and came running over and she said "Here's Hanna!"

After we left, we stopped by Burger King, as I hadn't had any supper. I wanted to see if John would go up in the playset there, but he wouldn't it. I said I'd go up with him and hold onto him if he was scared, and he went part way and then just started crying and quickly went back down. I don't know what it is exactly that scares him. Instead of enclosed ramps like at Mcdonalds, here you get up by climbing up on ledges, sort of like big steps, that spiral up. Maybe he doesn't like crawling up on the ledges high up, as he might think he's going to fall all the way down.
This morning as I picked Hanna up out of her crib, she grabbed a little stuffed bunny (she's quick!) Then, as I was changing her diaper she waved one of the bunny's arms with her hand and said "Hi Daddy!" ha, that's pretty imaginative.

As we driving to Sue's house, she was singing up a storm. She was kinda making up her own songs too. I heard her sing phrases from other videos or stories. Also, she'd sing, then say "louder" and then sing at the top of her lungs. heh.

When she sings the ABC song, at the end instead of saying "now I know my ABCs, next time..." she sings "now I A-B-E-F-G"

Grandpa called last night from the airport on his way back home. The kids were in bed already though.

John has had this exhibitionist streak lately (pun intended, I guess.) He'll shed his clothes, gather them up in his arms and come find me, laughing, then he'll drop the clothes and run all over.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Yeeks, it is a blustery day here. Wind is just blowing and gusting and howling. A bit chilly too. Someone should just take March out back and shoot it.

Rhonda and Hanna have gone to Walmart, so just John and I. He's reading books and playing with toys. Hopefully he'll nap today. I ended up sleeping for about 1 hr 40 minutes yesterday, a lot longer than I planned to.

I want to get started today on chapter 5 of The Circle.

I wonder what John did in sunday school, since we've got home he's been saying "Jesus knows what is going to happen".

We have nursery duty tonight. The service tonight is a concert band from Moody Bible Institute. They were looking for homes to house the students, and we would've volunteered, but they need a ride to the church I guess on Monday, and we'll both be off to work, so we couldn't do that.

Saturday, March 13, 2004

Both kids enjoyed their swimming lessons this morning. And once again, I left a minute or so early so I get a jump on the family changing rooms. There are only six, and are in great demand. I did get a room right away, and was out relatively quickly. Hanna was falling asleep on the way home.

Then, stopped by Target for our latest Saturday traditional post-swimming lunch. Some time back, Chunky soups were on sale at Cub, and we had got a bunch, and for most of the first session, we'd always have soup after swimming. Then, one day we were at Target and got some of their fried chicken, along with a loaf of roast garlic bread. Mmm, is that ever yummy. So, we've been doing that the last couple weeks.

Last night after supper we did something a bit different. It's been warmer here for awhile, and the snow has been melting, but was very cold the last couple days, so that all froze solid again. Plus, it was very windy yesterday and so blasted the surface of the snow into a hard smooth layer. The snow up by the house at the corner of the driveway is piled high from shoveling, so we got out the inflatable saucer thing, or whatever it is, like an innertube with the middle filled in. And John would get in, and I'd push him down and he would slide all the way across the yard to the street, where Rhonda would catch him. Hanna did that too, although I went and got the sled, as it was easier for her. Both loved that. We did that till the air ran out of that thing. Don't know if there is a leak or if it was cold.

Then, we went over to the bacon and egg place for a bit. That place was hopping with kids. We stopped at the Y before and after to get an idea of how busy it might be on a Friday night. We're planning to join eventually and would like to take the kids swimming on Friday evenings or something.

After lunch today we were doing Jericho downstairs (sing the Joshua fought the battle of Jericho song and jump on the bed), and then John laid down on the guest bed and pretended to sleep, then he sat up and said "Suddenly, one morning Kanga woke up out of bed..." ha, where did he get that? He's been making up stuff more and more lately, his own stories or songs or whatever.

John and Rhonda went by the main library branch after his lesson, and got some new books and videos. Rhonda said that library is quite big.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Whoa-ho-hoooo Nellie, she's-uh cold out there. Some Arctic air came through overnight, temps were around 9 degrees this morning. Plus very windy today, so wind chills are worse. Ugh, and it's March 11 already!!!

Last night at supper, John started jabbering about something, and was laughing. I couldn't quite understand, so I just kinda gave him a high five, and he laughed some more and kept going, and I eventually figured out he was talking about something we had seen on Sesame Street before supper. In the Cookie Monster segment, CM wanted to make a cookie disappear, so he wouldn't be tempted to eat it. So, the magician puppet came, and said his "A La Peanut Butter Sandwiches" and *poof*, there was a big puff of smoke, but the cookie didn't disappear, and they did that a few times, and John thought that was all quite funny. So, at dinner, I realized that's what he was doing, so I said "A La Peanut Butter Sandwiches" and gave him a high five, and John just started laughing as hard as I've ever seen him laugh. We did that a few times, and John's face was red he was laughing so hard. After supper then, he wanted to do that some more. Funny.

The question I have to answer about this masters program is it more suited for managers, testers, analysts, or if it could be of benefit to me as a developer. The program gives a good overview of the entire software development process, but I have no desire to be a manager, so I need to see if this program can help me be a better developer.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

This morning Hanna was in the bathroom, and the toilet seat was up, and there were some rubber pieces on it or whatever, to protect the seat when it was resting on the bowl, and she pointed at them and said "hot dogs". Heh, yeah, they kinda looked like little hot dogs.

As I was dressing her this morning, John had got out the little toy electric guitar in her room, and he was playing a little rhythmic beat, and he was making up a song to sing along with it. Something about the Hundred-Acre Wood. It was cute. Then, when I was done with Hanna, I said it's time for breakfast, and Hanna immediately went over to John, turned off the guitar, took it away from him and put it back by the toy chest. Ha!

We chased around last night. When John wants me to chase him, he says "I want to chase you Daddy" and when he wants to chase me, he says "I want you to chase me, Daddy" A bit backwards.

We played hide the metronome a little bit. Once, John put it in a box by the piano, and Hanna saw, and then Rhonda took her upstairs to change her diaper, and she came back down maybe 5 mnutes later or so, and she immediately went over to that box to look for the metronome. She remembered! She's sharp, can't get anything past her.

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Last night when I came home. I was holding Hanna for a bit, and she had leaned her head on my chest and was sucking on her finger, and I don't know if she drooled a bit, or if her finger was wet, but there was a small wet spot on my shirt. When Hanna saw that she pointed and said "soaking wet". ha, well, not really soaking wet.

Last night before he went to sleep, John crawled in bed with us, and he was doing the cutest thing. I had got him this JayJay book, where JayJay's friends hide behind clouds, and the page says something about the friend, a clue about who they are, and then you pull open the cloud flap and see who it is. Well, John was making up his own little thing about Thomas trains. He'd say "who's behind the cloud, he is red with three wheels... It's James the Red Engine!" so funny

This morning he crawled in with me again, and he was making up his own song about something, birds or something and he just kept going and going, kinda changed the tune around, hit the high notes, quite funny..

Last night we were upstairs in the hallway, and John heard something, so he kinda crouched down, and cupped his ear with his hand, and said "I hear a dragon!" It was a jet or something going overhead outside. Ha, how does he know about dragons?

I'm looking into a masters program in software engineering at the U of M. They have a two-year program for working people, where you go to class two Fridays a month, something like that. I wouldn't be able to get another masters if I had to quit work and go fulltime, but this way I could do it. I think it would help my career. My employer would reimburse some of the tuition, and encourages that sort of thing if it is in your job area, which it obviously is.

Monday, March 08, 2004

Boy, we just got dumped on with a lot of snow. I don't recall hearing much about it in the forecast. It was like we were inside a snow globe for awhile. We went out for a lunch today, and it short drive over to the restaurant over by Rosedale we passed a number of accidents. One car upside down in the ditch, another had an ambulance by it, a couple three other fender benders. Man, slow down people. You can't go 80 mph on slick streets and stop on a dime. I think my theory continues to hold, that every traffic accident is because someone does something stupid.

John was up and out of his bed this morning before I got up. I don't know if Ellie went in there and woke him up or what. He just played in his room while I showered.

We played a Care Bears game last night. John enjoys it. Hanna is not quite ready for games yet though. But I must encourage game-playing. I got stacks of them downstairs ready for them when they get older!

Victor Davis Hanson was the In Depth interview on BookTV this weekend. (A three hour interview with an author.) I taped it, and watched the first two hours. I like his writing, he's a thinker.

Sunday, March 07, 2004

Lately John has been saying "I'll be back in awhile" when he trots off to somewhere else.

They both enjoyed their swimming lessons yesterday, the start of another session. They are separate times though, so I took Hanna. I have to get in the pool with her again.

Got some snow this weekend, but this is March, so it's melted off fairly quickly, which is odd considering it's not too terribly warm. Only in the 30s. But, it's a sign of how strong the sun is becoming already.

Friday, March 05, 2004

Last night I gave the kids a bubble bath. When the suds start to go away, we fire up the whirpool jets to make a lot of bubbles again. We usually take the kids out, as the whooshing jets scare them. I turned on the switch, and the jets had been left on, so they whooshed the water, and John starting crying a bit, it scared him. Then, Hanna said "don't cry" and leaned over and gave him a kiss. ha. she's a little mommy, I tell ya.

I took the kids over to the bacon and egg play place at the mall this morning. Then, did a couple of the coin-operated rides.

It started glopping over night and into the morning. Not snowing. Snowing is when snow falls from the sky. This was glopping. A wet heavy March snow. We probably got 6 inches or so. I just got done blowing out the driveway. Thank goodness for snowblowers. I would've killed myself shoveling that heavy stuff.

The snowplow had come by, and made a big ridge of snow at the bottom of the driveway. (Doesn't really matter, it's soft and wet, and will melt soon.) The kids were playing outside while I was doing the driveway, and John enjoyed pushing a little riding thingie down the hill. The he'd say "oh no, I miss my pink thing!" (The riding thingie had pink handlebars and wheels.)

Thursday, March 04, 2004

Had a nice time with Mom last night. We got to the airport around 5:30. We took the kids up and down the escalators a couple times, and then went to eat.

We ended up going to eat at the Khyber Pass. It features Afghani food. Mmm, was that ever good. Scrumptious food. The bread and dip was excellent. For appetizer, we got Borani, which was roasted eggplant, some kind of tomato sauce and yogurt. Excellent. I had a lamb kebob. Mmm. All around, it's on my must return to list. We got some mango and guava juice for the kids. John said it was "delicious". The restaurant is at the corner of Grand and Snelling in St. Paul, right by Macalaster College.

Then, we went back to the airport for a bit, to play some more on the escalators and elevators. We bought some milk there, got the kids into their jammies, and then had a nice comfy ride home. (Well, I had to go back and get my car, which I left at work, and drove it home.)

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Mom is coming through the airport tonight. We'll go meet here and probably go eat somewhere. I have a few places in mind, some interesting ethnic places. I told John last night we'd go to the airport to see Grandma, and he was all excited.

I got a letter from GAMES magazine saying I had got a T-shirt in the Calculatrivia contest. OK, maybe not quite the same as the $1500, but I'll take it nonetheless!

We'll get our bonuses this Friday, and we could view it online today. It was whacked in half by taxed, 401k, etc... Thank you government. Bah.

Monday, March 01, 2004

John was a little agressive in sunday school yesterday. Boy, I just don't know what's bothering him. It seems like he's trying to express some frustration about something, but it's hard to tell what. I was gone by the time he got up yesterday, and that seemed to bother him, but Rhonda told him they'd meet me at the door at church, and that seemed to make him happy. Then, when they got to the church, I took him to the bathroom, and then brought him to his class, so maybe he was upset about being left again. I don't know how we can figure out how to help him.

Hanna was going potty this morning, and she pointed at the toilet paper and said "toilet paper" clear as a bell. She's really starting to talk more. After we have breakfast, Hanna will usually try to help John get his coat and boots on. She'll bring him his boots and coat and say "here you go!"

Temps have been in the 40s the last couple days, but starting tomorrow temps will get back down around 30.

John likes jumping on the bed with me holding his hands and then we sing Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho and One Little Boy Named David, and when the walls and the giant come tumbling down, he flops down on the bed. Of course Hanna has to get in on that action too.

I finished up the fourth book in Iain Pears' art history mystery series. Always enjoyable.