all the leaves are brown

We need to move out of this area, for no other reason than the *&#!cking leaf-blowers. Whatever happened to a damn rake? I try to do dissertation writing at home in the afternoon when baby-j takes his monster-long naps, which is always the time when the landscaping dudes (our landlord hires them to come to the house twice a week) decide to blow the leaves around. It’s loud and difficult to focus.

As so this morning, I drop baby-j off at the pre-school at my work, settle into my empty office with a cup of coffee in hand, prepared to work hard for a couple hours, and the whirring starts up. I look out my office window, and find more leaf-blower dudes, different ones, with bigger and louder equipment… I mean, they have a whole campus of leaves to blow into plastic bags.

Not to mention the fact that it’s late November. There are *supposed* to be orange and yellow leaves on the ground. A bare green lawn under naked trees seems somehow unnatural.

sesame redux

The first episodes of Sesame Street are out on DVD.

Here's an interesting piece about it in today's New York Times Magazine.

From the article:

Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

deciphering baby-j

baby-j calls hummus “mook.” He loves mook. Apparently mook can only be eaten with carrots, but few carrots are actually eaten—the carrot, as baby-j has discovered, is the perfect utensil for mook.

Another strange word choice of baby-j’s is his word for pretzel, which is pronounced “mek-um.” (Also odd: for some reason I have always spelled this “mechum” in my brain.)

But the detective-award this week goes to me: I discovered the origins of Too-oh-day, the mysterious phrase I first described in September (but he’d been singing this for much longer):

And the real stumper, the phrase P and I cannot figure out, is “Too-oh-day, too-oh-day.” Typically it is yelled in staccato: “Too! Oh! Day! / Too! Oh! Day!” and is accompanied by lots of foot-stomping. A cash prize will be awarded to any blog readers who can provide the origins and meaning of this mysterious phrase.

Lately he had added an “ahhhhh” after the phrase. Also, P suspected for a while now that the phrase was actually more like “Too! Oh! Nay! (Ahhhh!)” and wondered if baby-j was referring to Ernie of Sesame Street fame. Though baby-j doesn’t watch much TV, he does enjoy a Sesame Street DVD from time to time. There’s a part in one of the DVDs when Big Bird, having searched everywhere for Ernie, sings:

“My journey... to Ernie... is done!!!” Having not really watched this much with baby-j, I didn’t realize it until this week, when it finally hit me. He was singing “To Ernie... is done!”

You’d think I’d discovered the Holy Grail. P told me I should have called him immediately after my discovery, which would have been while he was at work. The best thing about this revelation, though, was baby-j’s reaction as I began to sing the correct phrase. A huge smile lit up his face; I could feel the joy as he sang along with me. I got the subtext: Yeah, mama, how come it took you so long to get it?

My journey... to Too-oh-day... is done. Thank God.

from "flight of the conchords"

A French friend of ours sent along this link, so I'm sharing it here. I found it hilarious, probably because it showcases the extent of my own mastery of the language. Baguette!

you should see the other guy

Ah, so he tumbled head first down some concrete stairs outside Wednesday aftrenoon and we ended up in the ER. It doesn't look too bad in this photo, but when I took him in, the bump was sort of scary-looking... like the time when I was 13 and fell on my face in the street, blacked out, and woke up to my brother looking at me with a horrified expression on his face. How do I look? I asked. Fine, he lied (poorly). Later, he told me that I looked like The Phantom of the Opera.

baby-j is doing well now--happy and energetic as usual. This morning we woke up at 6am, all huddling together to stay warm. Turns out yesterday the plumber who came to replace the hot water heaters neglected to turn the gas back on so we had no heat last night. We ended up hopping in the car to run errands as a way to avoid nose icicles.

change the margins

See http://www.changethemargins.com/.

Not only would we save paper, but I wouldn't have to get any more of those papers from students in 16 pt. font with 3-inch margins on each side. :)

definitely not a brown recluse

As promised, here are some pictures of baby-j in costume. I carried this heavy spider on my shoulders for about a half hour walk through the woods on Halloween night. My body is still recovering, but I still prefer this one to the brown recluse.

I just realized as I write this: what a strange choice I made in putting baby-j in a spider costume. Maybe next year he can go as poison ivy, or an injured middle finger.

housing news

I’ve been waiting a while to write about it here, but now we’re gotten to a point in the process where it’s ok: we’re purchasing a house! We’re finally in contract with the sellers (it took about a month), and the closing date should be in December or January.

We are still sad about leaving our first house, but in spite of that--or maybe because of it--we are very excited about this new place. It’s close to a lake, and the house itself and yard are both a great size for us: modest, yet roomy. It’s on a corner lot, and there’s a fence all around the property, which is great for baby-j and his tendency to rove. There are several big old trees on the lot, and room for some gardening. One room in the basement is partially finished; I am referring to it as the “future toddler art room.” We will be able to walk to the (very small) downtown, and bike to the public beach in the summer. It will be about 20-25 minutes to work for P, and about 40-45 minutes to work for me (anything closer was completely out of our price range). So the commute, especially compared to the old one (90 minutes each way!), is not too bad.

Oh, we are just so excited.

Fun Fact #1: This will be our sixth residence in 3 1/2 years.
Fun Fact #2: If we move in December, we'll have lived in three different states this year. That should provide some excitement at tax time.