On, um, Monday...

Well, more teasing, but I really was impressed with this Evan Premo, who is the artist I heard on the radio the other day. You can read a little here, and check out a intro sample here (but you have to look down the list and play the seventh selection). Evan Premo and his wife make up Duo Borealis. Great. Here you can watch Evan Premo participate in the Polar Bear Club. Also, at that link, if you click on "Listen To The Show" I think you can hear the song I have been talking about, "in Just-" (tune in at 37:00).

Let me not hesitate any longer to report the great impetus of this blog, however, which is that Isaac began counting today. No, not abstractly attributing cardinality to sets of things, but, as Orry started years ago, uttering the exciting and anticipatory 1-2-3 before getting thrown in the air, twirled around, dipped to the ground, &c. And let me also say that although little Gonzo's 1-2-3 was not as clear as a bell, it is his first expression of numbers. And you know how that makes a daddy proud.

On Sunday...

How excited I was to bring together for you the current sunshiny Spring weather, ee cummings, a contrabassist and a soprano, and a little romance, all courtesy of one of my favorite radio programs From The Top. However, they don't seem to have the program online yet so I'll have to settle for cutting and pasting the poem and sharing it with you later.

Oh! But here I found a treasure trove of the song set to music! It doesn't have the particularly likable piece I referenced above, but it should satisfy for you the juxtaposition of sunshiny Just-Spring weather, ee cummings, and music at least. Oh, but it doesn't link you to the music--just teases you by telling you about it. Like I am doing, I guess.

The poem:

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee --

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee




And now, paying a sort of vulgar tribute to cummings, here are some made-up words we use in our house, and you might have too, if you've had babies in your house or not.

snart: to simultaneously sneeze and fart
furp: to simultaneously burp and fart
cfart: to simultaneously, yes, you guessed it, cough and fart. if you say this one just right (that is, explosively enough) it is onomatopoeia.

And now, since you read this far, let me continue on and say on this beautiful day we are going to picnic after church, and hit up the Lousiana Art and Science Museum. The kiddos are still a little sniffly, so we'll probably bring them into church with us instead of letting them infect the other kids at the nursery.

This week some rain is due so I'm looking forward to finishing some inside projects.

Have a wonderful second week of March.

Month-end Report

Before February ends, I ought to write again.

The state runs an arsenal museum at the park in the capitol area which is open until 4 on Saturday. However, we ran there after work yesterday, and although we got there by 3:30, the doors were closed. We made the most of it, climbing the old Indian mound and racing on the sidewalks and grassy knolls. Then we went to the capitol and gawked at the big statues, big ceilings and big art, and rode up the big elevator. Today we went to the old state capitol and played on the stairs and hillside. We also saw the Merci Train boxcar.


I've been watching Mars lately. I am hoping to go to the observatory with the boys one of these winter nights.

Annie is growing. She smiles and still grunts a lot. She looks around and controls her head when sitting upright.

Isaac is healing well from his collarbone fracture and his usual rambunctious self. His communication skills are improving but he is not racing to talk or to use the potty either.

Orry is racing to read and write and to distinguish between convertibles and other cars. He has also become quite the little runner.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and I are making backwards progress in our developmental skills. Talking like toddlers or cooing like infants, laughing absurdly at little things, and playing Monopoly City or trying to watch shows after our bedtime.

Many of you know I do tree work to make extra money, but not many of you probably know the dynamis of working on crews that remove or trim trees. This sort of work is great outside work, labor in the elements, enjoyment of a job that changes from day to day, but I realized all this can be soured by either of two things. a) working with a lousy crew, and b) getting a government contract. Regarding a), the crew that Trent and I have worked with has been hit and miss over the past months. Working with Trent is great when we get a chance, but mostly we work with other guys. Regarding b), the company we work with got a state contract in January, and it is fairly demoralizing for the day or two a week we work that job, where the objective seems to be to work as slowly and as inefficiently as possible. Well, last week I had a breath of fresh air as I worked with two new guys on a residential job. The two new guys, Mexicans, made up a good crew to work with, and it is so nice to work "hard and fast" again.

It smells like a wonderful dinner at our place, so it must be time to close this up and feast. thank you for reading!

I finally got the chance to...

I finally got the chance to kick a door in. I locked myself out of the house just when it was time to go down to Houma to pick up the wife and kids. Because I had observed that the jamb had signs of compromise, I knew I could kick it in cleanly. There was no wasting time. Bam.

Well, we've gone mostly vegan in our household diet. We still eat quite a bit of meat, not to mention the occasional cheese and yogurt or other dairy products or eggs to consider ourselves vegan though, that's for sure. I was thinking today, though, while we were at our produce market, that we eat pretty healthily. I think it's apparent because we're at that place so often, getting lots of fresh veggies and fruits.

My latest hankering is to get childhood memories and stories from the kids' great-grandparents while they're still kicking. I am such a sloth though. I wrote up letters to send out to the three great-grandparents, but I sure haven't gotten them in the mail yet. One of the great-grandparents was born to parents from an island in the Pacific Ocean. One of the great-grandparents was born to parents from an island in the Atlantic Ocean. And one of the great-grandparents was born to parents from I don't know where, but maybe she was born on a houseboat. In the good old US of A, presumably.

In our experience, children's movies from the library just don't play very well in our laptops.

I hope you all have caught sight of Mars lately in the evening sky. There is a good line up of three bright heavenly bodies. Sirius, the star brightest in our night sky, Procyon, part of the Winter equilateral triangle and also of the little dash in the sky that is Canis Minor, and then Mars, a little lower in the evening than Castor and Pollux in Gemini.

Bonnie beat me again in Monopoly City. That makes two times she has singlehandedly taken down the champ.

I am giving up chess for Lent, and I am giving up cookies for Lent.

There is lightning out there tonight, causing peals of thunder to rumble in our ears.

tomorrow and the day after tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day my paternal grandfather would have turned 91. Bonnie's maternal grandmother would have turned 88. Abraham Lincoln would be celebrating 201 years of life after birth, as would also Charles Darwin.

We started playing the new Monopoly City game. I have won two games, the most of any Baton Rouge Becker, so I am the Monopoly champion. I think I will cease playing chess for now, finally.

I added up numbers for my remaining expenses on projects, and I'm quite pleased with attainable light at the end of the tunnel. Lots of sheetrock work awaits. I'm not excited about that, but oh so thankful that Trent will help it go by with much better company than the company I have when I do things myself.

I experienced a new weather condition today. When the sleet started this morning, it really sounded like it was raining small ice crystals. Out in it, you couldn't even sense them falling, except for the quite conspicuous sound, like millions of tiny ice crunches. As the precipitation picked up, it was more like the sleet and freezing rain we all know. But at the beginning--strange.

I love spending time with my family. Read more about us all in Bonnie's blog, if you haven't already.

Valentine's Day is an extra special day in our family, because that is when Bonnie turns 26 each year. But if you ask her, she might tell you 22. I think she's into perpetual youth. Me? I'm into perpetual Bonnie. Anyway, I need to think of something romantic we can do, like maybe finding a romantic action movie to torrent, or maybe going to play darts or pool together. I know! I can arrange all the dirty diapers that need to be rinsed in a heart shape in our bathroom sink, so that when she goes to rinse them out, she will have a warm smile in her heart. Or, maybe I'll clean and wash the car and take her to the movies but then decide they cost too much these days and take her downtown instead and walk around the riverside and talk about days gone by and days ahead.

Annie

We are getting used to a household of five. And to calling our little no-name girl by her name, or nickname, if you will, of Annie. Annie short for Anza.

Trent and I took our goats to the fair with a girl named Anza, lo those many years ago in our 4H days. I wondered what became of our goat-girl and thought of her some these past nine months when naming a little girl came to be a priority. But today I found out some clues courtesy of google, and now have a pending facebook contact which may reveal more about what one Anza thinks of another. Bonnie and I are just tickled about finding the perfect name.

Reading, Veganism, Gestation

What a fine time I had with the family over the past couple weeks here in Baton Rouge.

I have a problem with writing things these days. I suppose the biggest report is that Orry is a little reader these days. He sounds out words like a champ, and likes to read and write a little each day. Also he types, picking out the letters and the sound. He typed these:

orry
hat
sad
hot
kld

As you can see, he is not the most advanced yet. Also, the other day, when we asked him to read "top" he read it from right to left. He'll do that, and he'll write a word backwards as in mirror, and sometimes, I think, even backwards with the letters oriented frontwards. Anyway, that's fine, because we're tickled he likes to do those sorts of things instead of drawing crayon on the newly painted walls.

As far as me, I am pretty convinced about veganism for optimum health. I'm not a non-meateater myself, but sure recognize a plant based diet as a treatment and cure for obesity and some cancers and other pathologies. I guess most of this comes from reading The China Study and its critiques. Actually, it all comes from that. I've always leaned towards vegatarianism owing to the killing of animals and the unnecessary energy going into feeding animals to feed us. On top of that, there is the "big industry" meat production and egg and dairy production and I've frowned at all that. But then, there is the appreciation of animal life and flesh and the smaller scale animal farming which I've got behind in my day. But reading The China Study and about the argument more has tipped me over the edge. Now, like I said, I'm not vegan myself, but I did convince Bonnie to change our menus more in that direction and we're having good fun with all that.

We discovered quinoa, for example.

We also cooked mirlitons, finally.

And now, I will go get Isaac out of the bath. He is fine, and so is Bonnie, although she is in quite an uncomfortable time of her gestation.