Thoughts for today

I was looking at some of my friends' blogs and I realized they don't use their names or their children's names on their blogs. Upon that realization, I felt a wave of fear wash over me. Have I made a huge mistake with this blog? Am I putting my family at risk?

Fear is a big topic in the news this week because of the tragedy at the Virginia Tech campus. It's being called a massacre. I don't know what to call it. It's a horror for the families, that's for sure. I'm not going to comment on it out of respect for them.

I've been watching The West Wing series on DVD. I'm several years late watching the series. It's an excellent show. As I see President Bush comment on Virginia Tech, I find myself wishing that President Bartlet (the character from West Wing) was our President. President Bush lacks conviction and eloquence. He has little to no ability to inspire confidence from me. (He did it once on 9/11. I saw conviction and I believed him.) He's no more than a talking head. For Pete's sake, Mr. President! Extend SINCERE condolences to these families. Reach in you and find your voice!

Local boy grows up and does good

One day, I was at my brother's house. I overheard him telling our sister that he wanted her to read a book he had that was written by a guy who had grown up in our home town. The story was set in our home town. Naturally, this piqued my interest.

So, I borrowed the book from him. I read it. I was expecting it to be lame and only interesting to people from our town. But, it wasn't lame. It took me back to things I had forgotten about. A trip down memory lane. And the main character brought to mind Holden Caufield. I thought he was decent example of an unreliable narrator.

Anyhow, that's way more technical than I intended this post to be. My point in bringing this up was that I had a chance to talk to this author the other day. It was cool. His name is John McNally. I took the opportunity to tell him where my brother and I guessed he lived to see if we got it right. (We did.) It's nice to hear that someone from my area is doing well.

Just a thought

I was just thinking about global warming. I've been told that one of our concerns is that our polar caps are melting, thus increasing the size of the oceans, and decreasing the size of the surrounding continents. And, the idea is that we are making them melt with all of our industrialization. Bad us.

When I thought about it further, I thought about the Great Lakes and the area in which I live. I went to a college named Moraine Valley. There are Moraines all over the place here, which are basically areas that were supposed to have been formed by glaciers. Glaciers that melted, right? That was a long time ago, before we were industrialized.

And weren't the Great Lakes formed the same way? From Glaciers long gone? So, is Global Warming really something we have control over? Or is that just arrogance to believe that we really have control over it?

Just a thought. No answer.

Snow

Remember back in March, about a month ago, I said Winter was almost over? Well, we had some accumulation of snow today. I was pretty shocked when I looked out the window this morning and saw snow covering everything. It was only an inch or so, but I didn't realize it was coming. It has been cold, and we have been having flurries for a while. But I did not realize we would get anything like this. Quite the shocker. Yikes!

Work

I'm working 4 days a week now. I was released for a 6 week trial. I have to see a neuro psychologist for some memory testing in the mean time. I'm having some problems remembering things. Recall, short term memory and multitasking are problems for me. I haven't made my appointment yet, so not sure when it will happen.

Ansel Adams

Grace has asked for a camera for her birthday. I was relaying this information to her Auntie Val. As we discussed kids cameras being either very crummy or very expensive, I commented that we probably shouldn't worry about quality because she probably will not be taking Ansel Adams photos yet.

I was reminded of a series of photos she took with our digital camera of which we (particularly her Dad) are quite proud. It's an action series. Of poop. Yes. That's right. Poop. She was evidently quite pleased with herself, so she photographed her accomplishment in the toilet. Then again as she flushed it, and again as it went down the drain, and again, and again.

That's our girl.

The magic wand

My friend Lori gave Grace a magic wand. She sent it in the mail. It's quite fancy. It lights up and makes a little sound, like "ta da de daaa." Very princess-y. Grace loves it, naturally.

That day, we were in the bathroom brushing Grace's hair. I was sitting on the toilet and she was standing in front of me. She was playing with her wand. She was waving it around in circles and mumbling some things. I couldn't really hear what she was saying. I continued to brush her hair and put it up in a pony tail.

Suddenly, Grace turns around and taps me on the head with her magic wand.

"Darn." she says.
"Did you try to turn me into a toad?" I asked.
"Yes." she replied.

Let me tell you, it was not easy to hold back the laughter.

Easter update

It was a quiet Easter here. Grace was sick for the entire holiday weekend. Just a fever and runny nose, but it started when I picked her up from daycare and continued until she woke Sunday morning. She missed out on the Easter Egg Hunt at The Children's Farm where my Dad volunteers. It's a bad event to miss. They have a lot of fun activities. She didn't even get to see the Easter Bunny this year. Poor dear.