Putting My Boys to Bed Last Night...

...after I'd been at work all day, and I told them, "I don't have to work tomorrow -- we'll have a good day. What do you want to do?"

Gehrig says, "Go to the Likka Sto!"

My boy...

Top Five Books I Read for the First Time in 2008

(in the order in which I read them)

1. What Dreams May Come, by Richard Matheson
2. Until I Find You, by John Irving
3. Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield, by Kenneth D. Ackerman
4. Shadows of the Empire, by Steve Perry
5. Theodore Rex, by Edmund Morris

I had an off year.

2007's list is here.
2006's is here.

What We Look Like These Days

Found a Great Word

Paraprosdokian

My Boys...

...are fighting over whether or not Gehrig is Jar Jar.

Dusting Off Barber This Week

In April my friend Brian died fighting a fire. No one likes a whiner, so I'll just say that I've never in my life wanted so badly for something to not have happened. Google grief cycle if you want, but here it is nearly eight months later and Sunday night I have this dream. I remember how it(my dream) felt more than anything, but I remember that Brian had died but was able to put off leaving for a day so we could all say goodbye to him. It's Wednesday now, and I can't quite shake it.

And maybe that's all I have to say. I've tried like hell not to wallow in it since April, but sometimes...

More Election Stuff

I'm with it enough to recognize the historical significance of what happened Tuesday night. I got chills watching the celebrations (and also a little sick every time I had to look at Al Sharpton) but I can't pretend to have felt it the way some of my friends have. I asked one of them yesterday what Tuesday night had been like for her, trying to ask an open-ended enough question that she'd have room to let me as inside as she wanted to, and we had a good talk. (Or she did, and I had a good listen.) As she spoke her eyes welled up and again, I got chills.

When I asked her what the election had changed for her, she talked about her pre-teen son, and then she told me that she knew that lots of white people had to have voted for Obama too. That the black vote alone wouldn't have been enough to win it. "White people voted for one of us," she whispered and her eyes narrowed as she leaned in closer to me. "Now when I walk past a white person," (and she was talking about her co-workers -- people she's been close to for a long time,) "I think, maybe they don't think we're all stupid."

Broke my heart.

Hail to the Chief?

We have video footage of Gehrig, who is three, at his second birthday party rattling off all forty-three presidents. I'm not saying he's particularly smart -- kids are wired to learn at a ridiculous pace, and Gehrig is already light years behind his kid brother in the useful, common-sense kind of smart -- but that's the kind of smart he is and it's been a riot (in kind of a creepy way) over the past couple years to watch this flaky wisp of a child recognize the Millard Fillmore and Benjamin Harrison biographies as we've pulled them out of the mail together.

So we're watching the election Tuesday night and I say to the boy, "You're gonna have to learn another president after tonight, Buddy. There's gonna be a new one." And his eyes get big and hopeful like only a child's can and he says, "Is it Boba Fett?"

*ahem*

the world may now continue. I (dana) have made things easy for ben (it wasn't that difficult!) and he can now continue blogging without much effort going to the login aspect of things.

oh, how i've missed the blogging. :)

you may have to gently urge him to post again. i'd even buy him some sheesha if it came down to it.

~dana

Hadn't Seen This in Years

It's funny.

Finally

The Boomer is gone.

"She's Alot Like a Slinky," He Said,

"Not good for much, but fun to push down the stairs."

Drat

Dude was good.

Among the Sentences I Never Thought I'd Say:

"Hoo-Hoo, drop the feces!"

Apparently I Live in Cincinnati

Went to the ballpark Monday and ended up uncomfortably hot, sweaty and sunburned. Went back two days later and shivered in the snow.

If You're Still Out There...

Happy Birthday Josh!

Hey Drew

Catch this one?

Tater Fart

My Boys

Just Finished...

The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields. Powerful. Legitimately great.

Good Start

Go Redbirds.

Took a Pedometer to Work Today

Walked nine miles.

Well, Drat.

Are you free, Mr. Humphries?

Just Finished...

March by Geraldine Brooks. Wow.

The Colts are Better

But I'm taking the Bears.

Hey Jared!

When we can get together?

Hey Ma!

Nando wrote a book!

Drat

Now what?

How do you quantify Messed Up?

How?

Top Five Books I Read For the First Time in 2006

(in the order in which I read them)

1. It, by Stephen King
2. I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb
3. John Adams, by David McCullough
4. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
5. The Stand, by Stephen King

Last year's list

My Top Ten, by Play Count

As of the end of 2006, which will be here any minute now...

1. Bothered, by Over the Rhine (85)
2. Cathedrals, by Jump, Little Children (74)
3. Life is Sweet, by Natalie Merchant (63)
4. Carrying Cathy, by Ben Folds (60)
Nobody Number One, by Over the Rhine (60)
New Thing Now, by Shawn Colvin (60)
7. Nobody Knows Me, by Lyle Lovett (56)
8. Ashokan Farewell, by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (54)
Latter Days, by Over the Rhine (54)
10. Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (53)
Steppin' Out, by Joe Jackson (53)
B.P.D., by Over the Rhine (53)

est quod est

Last year's list

Song of the Year: Still Fighting It, by Ben Folds

Smile

For What It's Worth

I won my fantasy league.

Hey

Merry Christmas