Bleary Christmas

I took Monday-Wednesday this week, and then the President added Friday onto Thursday as a parting gift, so I've just spent a week pretty much productivity-free. It has been wonderful. Back to the office tomorrow for a short work week.

Among other things I got several pairs of socks for Christmas and it has been my favorite gift so far. Today I'm on pair four from the six-pack of whites; I'm planning on going dark tomorrow. I can't get over how great it feels to wear new socks. I broke into my bag of Peppermint Patties today and these are coming up as another winner. After I accept the fact I'm not getting that monster $1,600 camera lens this year, I'm relatively easy to please.

Vocabu-Claire-y

Claire's getting to be a great talker, but at age 2 she still says some really funny things. Here's a dictionary to translate what she's saying.

Carter = Tahtoe
Malcolm = Bahgah (was Bah)
Madeleine = Nummy (my favorite)
Claire = Kay
Lollipop = pee pop
Fruit snack = foo-tack
Blanket = blay
Piggy bank = Pee pee peek
I Was So Mad (book title) = Sho My
Hop On Pop = Pop Pop Pop

UPDATE 12/28:
This weekend she got better at saying Blanket. It's now two words — Blay. Ket.
Also a favorite I forgot first time around. Flashlight = Bud Light

The Great Lie Begins

Happy "35th" birthday today, Joanie! (Now take a closer look at the picture of the cake.)

She had lunch with the girls, I made the mother-in-law cake, we took the big kids out to P.F. Chang's (my first time there — loved it), we showered her with presents, we played with her new Wii Fit.

Even with so many trips around the sun, she's still a hottie.

Forestation

Is the opposite of uncouth, couth? Is the opposite of deforestation, forestation? Well, that's what's happened in our house. The kids took over decorating the tree this year, and it is a wonderful precedent.

Brother Can You Spare An Electron?

Thursday night we got tangled up in the Great Northeast Ice Storm of '08. Treetops 15' and 20' feet in length snapped off in our backyard under the weight of all the ice. All over New York trees downed power lines, and we even saw a few telephone poles down.

Our electricity was out for 3 days and 2 nights, and it got incredibly cold in the house. Without power our two sump pumps could not run and we had 3 inches of water in the basement. We could see our breath distinctly when we went to bed the second night.

No more of this — it was too cold to stay home a third night. After a refugee dinner at one friends' we went home to gather some things in the dark to spend the night at anothers'. We came home to a lit-up house with the heat on. We all appreciate electricity a lot more now.

Taking It To The Mattresses

Carter has graduated to a twin bed so we have this shredded crib mattress from his intermediate kids bed that's on its way to the dumper. Joanie thought it would be a good idea to show Malcolm and Madeleine how to ride it down the stairs. We have a new indoor sport for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

My 20-year-old Nikon flash from eBay has this fun repeating feature ... I set it at 4 Hz, darkened the house and left the camera shutter open for four blinks to capture Malcolm's descent. Click the photo for a larger version, you can just make out the ghost of him wearing a gold shirt and red plaid jammy bottoms.

Out of the Blau

Last week we got a message that one of our best friends from Missouri, Herman (B.) would be passing through. So we invited him to make a special guest appearance for dinner! We haven't seen each other for 10 or 12 years or some crazy amount of time, but he's still just as fun as before. What a great time we had catching up.

Herman and Melissa were newly married around the same time as us, had their first kid just as we did, and they were even our next door neighbors for a while. I'd bring home from work an exotic-in-that-day Mac laptop to "configure it," but me and Herman would really be networking it with my home Mac so we could wage Bolo tank battles. Eat hot lead, Tank-Boy!!!

You could look at me and Herman and think we are different as night and day, but we had a great time. Even separated these long years, we talked about how much we both hate home repairs and rely on our wives to fix the house. Friends who know you like this don't come along every day.

Party Pooper

What do you do when you're a 13 year old girl and too cool for a house full of 11-12 year old boys running around? Camp out in the kitchen and make the best of it with a slice of pie and the TV guide.

Birthday Boys

Malcolm's second birthday cake came with a pack of boys for a party and sleepover. After pizza, cake and presents they played manhunt out in the freezing cold night, then came in for Legos, traditional bedtime cereal and Corner Gas until I made them go to bed at 2. I took the opportunity to whup a few of them in Wii tennis and bowling.

Cake 2

This was Malcolm's second birthday cake of the week, created for his friend party. Unfortunately while it baked we discovered the bottom element of the oven gave out, but hey, the top was done. The layers all sagged a little in the middle, but it was mostly cooked, and Joanie added extra homemade buttercream frosting in the center to prop things up — never a bad thing. Then the whole thing collapsed under its own weight. Drinking straws were added as a makeshift structural integrity field.

It actually was delicious, though not much to look at. Of course, for 11-12 old boys, they thought this was the coolest cake ever.

First Lights of the Night

When the sun goes down on downtown Albany, the building lights come up and make everything shiny.

Last Rays of the Day

Sunset on the Corning Tower, downtown Albany, Tuesday evening. Taken through my office window while paying strict attention to my third conference call in a row.