A Very Lethal Christmas

We got some great gifts this Christmas. Thanks to everyone that sent us some goodies. I know it can be a hassle to send things overseas to us, but your efforts are appreciated.

There was one gift, however, that was unintentionally funnier than it was intended. It came in a box that Aidan got which had several other toys in it. This one toy immediately stood out from among its peers.



It's an old-style G.I. Joe; the 12-inch tall variety. He's got on a real fabric uniform and he also came with a hat. He also has what appears to be a fatal chest wound. The view from behind shows that it was a "through and through."



Now everyone knows that some soldiers die, but does this fact have to be so clearly illustrated on Christmas morning? Not to mention that this particular guy is wearing a 101st patch. That's the same patch that I wear on my right sleeve. Is this like one of those voodoo dolls? Maybe its a mob message? I better start checking my brake line before I got to work in the morning...

Knights of the Round Radio

For Christmas, we got Aidan a set of knights and a big castle for them to rule/overthrow. I have to admit, they're pretty awesome. The castle did take a good part of the morning to set up, but we had a good time putting it together.

Today, Aidan had some of the knights out at the kitchen table during lunch. They were "fighting" each other, or at least squaring off for a fight. Just for kicks, I asked Aidan what the knight's names were, expecting something like "Aidan knight, Daddy knight, etc." Instead, he rattles off a slew of names for every knight and their dragon. We tried to write them down, but some of the names changed after he said them the first time. Here's the snapshot, with labels:



Just to re-iterate, that's Strongeo, Red Radio, Black Radio, Grey Radio, Blue Radio, and Frick Freyio (the dragon). I can't tell you where all the "radios" came from, but when we asked Aidan to clarify that he in fact meant radios, he held his hand up to his mouth to pantomime talking on a CB. Red Radio, it is.

Baby Terminator

Let's face it: Terminator 3 was a flop. A girl terminator?? What kind of horrific dystopia are we facing in the future?

I think this is a much more plausible scenario...

And let me save the grammar police the trouble by acknowledging that I spelled desperate incorrectly. I admit it, I'm not Daniel-effing-Webster. Get off my back.

Merry Christmas!

Today we want to wish a Merry Christmas to all of our readers, and thank you for pretending that our blog is cool. That is the best gift you can give us.

And to our Jewish readers, ahem, Heller and Linda, we wish you the more generic, non-offensive Happy Holidays.

Danger: Christmas

I hate having a real tree, because we always have some moronic problem with it. Jenniferpants wrote that she and her husband forgot to cut the bottom off of their real tree, so it's not absorbing any water and might not make it to Christmas; I was not even aware that you needed to do such a thing. This year, we got a cut-off tree (no roots), but couldn't find a stand at the Italian store. Joel bought a bucket and some dirt, and we "planted" it. So far, so good, but it is getting pretty dried out.
Also, we never know what to do with it after Christmas- one year we threw it in the woods behind our house, and it turned purple. I think it was possibly related to the anti-fire treatment they put on it, but what do I know. Last year, we put it out on our balcony, where it kept all of its needles as a perfectly preserved, dried-out fire-hazardous porch decoration. A few months later, we dropped it bucket-first over the edge en route to the dump. As soon as it hit the ground, 1000000 needles dropped off and the tree was totally bare. It was actually really cool, and we might try to replicate it this year, if just for the photo op.
Any other horror stories, or is everyone else on earth capable of keeping and disposing of one tree a year??

The Cold German

Last weekend, we went to Berlin for a few days. Our goals: Check out the Christmas markets and the remnants of the wall. Long story short, check and check. Read on for the long story.

We stayed at a hotel that was decorated in the style of the DDR (Socialist East Germany). It was pretty cool, but Aidan was MAD because the last few hotels we've stayed at, in Pisa and London, have had bunk beds for him to sleep in. Apparently these hotel owners were still waiting in line for their bunks.

We went to three markets. Each had its own personality, but there were lots of constants: large gingerbread hearts made into necklaces, wooden ornaments, hot spiced wine and 1/2 meter "wursts," wooden huts full of things to buy, and kids' rides. Aidan gets so excited about the rides, but as soon as they start, this happens:

The kids did OK, but it was very cold. For one of the first times in my life, I experienced weather that required coats, hats, gloves, and scarves; everyone but Joel was wearing tights under their pants. Still, cheerful faces were all around:One of the markets, at Potsdamer platz, had a large hill constructed and you could ride down on inner tubes. Aidan got scared and backed out, but here is a terrible picture of Joel going down:On the last day, we went to the wall. It didn't seem so intimidating, but the absence of guards and guns these days might have some effect on my impression.We also went to the DDR Museum, which was really fun and one of the few things Aidan liked on the trip, and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which I thought was overrated but did have some interesting things to look at, I guess. I thought the actual checkpoint was more interesting:

Hope you enjoyed these pictures. We have lots more and should be posting some more with more in-depth information, if you care. Which we hope you do!

Tiny Fashionista

Just a quick post to show off my cutie pie baby girl and her awesome outfit she was wearing the other day. Also, you might notice her boo boo on her nose- no worries. She had a little scrape but it is already gone. Kids are so resilient.

Our Unfancy Christmas

After seeing jenniferpants' beautiful tree, I wanted to post a picture of mine so she can see what a few years of kids means to your holiday decorating. It's not pretty.

I have just given up on anything glass on the tree, even though I continue to buy expensive, beautiful hand-blown ornaments over here. One day, I keep telling myself. Anyway, we decided to make a paper chain and gingerbread cookies for the ornaments, to supplement the one box of fabric ornaments I had from last year. We also stuck on the stockings. Here is the tree just after trimming:

Strangely, our cookie men developed some kind of gingerbread leprosy, because we noticed this on the tree:

Hmmm... good thing we didn't make that popcorn string that we had talked about, or some little mouse would have been too full for dinner for about a week.

Paperbot

One of my main reasons for having children was to have an excuse to do crafts. In that spirit, Aidan and I (mostly I) made this robot from construction paper one day, just for the hell of it. I made the body, cut and shaped the limbs, and glued on the sequin "controls." Aidan glued on the arms. Later, he brought it out to me and said, "I made a face on the robot." I was nervous that he had ruined it, but when I saw the mouth he had drawn, I thought it looked like a sound wave, which was really funny and appropriate for a robot mouth. Now that his arm has been damaged, and he is inching closer and closer to art project heaven (also called the trash can), it has taken on a nervous expression that I think is just perfect.

Justin is Back

After a long, tedious 15 months in Iraq, my younger brother Justin is back in the US. He arrived back last Tuesday to an icy Ft. Reiley, KS. My parents drove up to meet him as he got off the plane and return his car to him. He's getting out of the army in March (lucky prick) and is actually somewhat homeless from now to then. He isn't going to rent a place, since he's only going to be around for a couple of months and wouldn't be able to get out of the lease just because he's getting out of the army. So he's crashing at someone's place who's away at a school and let Justin stay there out of the kindness of their heart.

Justin is an aspiring filmmaker and is trying to film a documentary about Iraq/Afghanistan veterans who have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the war. He's got a couple of guys with PTSD who have agreed to let Justin film them as they make their way along the road to recovery. If you have PTSD, or know someone who is effected by it, and are interested in being a part of this film, drop a comment and we'll try to set something up.

While you're at it, send a "Welcome back" message to my brother. justin.j.springer /at/ gmail dot com. While you're at it, show how much you really "support our troops" and send him some money to help finance his film.

Or maybe you can just buy a yellow ribbon magnet and put it on your car. I'm sure all the troops really appreciate that.

Jessica's Nerd Joke

It doesn't happen very often, but yesterday Jessica out-nerded me in a joke.


We were goofing on the fact that we both, for different reasons, were called "mole" as a nickname when we were kids. For me, it was just a goofy name rhyme: Joel the Mole. For Jessica, it was a name her Mom called her because she was a little bit of an inside kid and liked to stay in her room reading.


Then Jessica says at least she wasn't called "6.02 x 10^23". I looked at her in amazement and laughed my ass off. Is it possible that she just made a molarity joke? As it turns out, she did.

For those in the know, enjoy the nerd humor. For those that don't get it, sorry. Maybe you should have paid more attention in school.

Crazy Judges

I was wasting some time here at work, surfing the internet while I wait for the next asinine request to come down the pipe. I saw a story while I was browsing around about a “fog shower” that some kid in Brazil designed for a contest sponsored by Electrolux. Nothing too crazy; it’s a shower that makes a warm fog instead of a stream of water for you to wash off. It’s supposed to be “more environmentally friendly”, or some crap.

It was interesting enough for me to look at the Electrolux site http://www.videonewsmanager.com/electrolux/download.html to see what it was all about. Pretty blah for the most part… until I got to the section about the judges.



Holy crap. What a motley crew this lot is. They look like James Bond reject villains. Especially ol’ Matali Crasset. What’s with that haircut? Jason Bradbury isn’t too much better. Wasn’t he Le Chiffre in Casino Royal?



Oh, sorry Mads Mikkelsen. I’m sure people make that mistake all the time.

Have a good look at these folks. Can you imagine how exhausting it must be to be one of these people? To have to get up every morning and fix your hair that like? To have to find some haute couture fashion to wear everyday? To have to be stuck with a name like Henrik Otto for your whole life?

"Hello, this is Henrik. Are you available for our backgammon game this afternoon?"

Yech.

Even Celine Cousteau, arguably the most mainstream of the lot, has a crazy picture. Look at the lighting. She's not outside in front of a cloudy sky. That's a studio photo that they put that background behind. What's with that? In fact, she might be the wackiest of the bunch. A little bit "tries to hard" perhaps?

Anyway, moral of the story: designers are bizarre. Especially European designers.

Cheers from Jolly Old England

We went to London over Thanksgiving. In a word, it was OVERWHELMING. There were literally a billion things to see and do there. Literally, a billion. Or more. We saw all of the cool Egyptian things that the Brits have plundered, including amazing mummies, huge busts of kings, and enormous iron city gates. We also went to the Tower of London, where we could have easily spent all day. Crown jewels, thrones, Tower Bridge, Beef Eaters, prisoner cells, museums- what's NOT to love?

We also went to Westminster Abbey. It was kind of expensive, so we decide to skimp by attending an evening service (free!) rather than taking the regular tour. As we went in, Ava was asleep and Aidan was really sleepy, so we hoped he'd take a nap on my lap. Instead, Ava pooped all over herself and then screamed and screamed and screamed. Due to the way we were positioned, we couldn't get out of the door without walking in front of everyone, right in front of the priest. Finally, a priest came over and asked Joel if he'd like to take the baby outside. On the bright side, Aidan did take a nice nap on my lap. Good boy.

Buckingham Palace was also on the itinerary. It wasn't quite what I pictured- we saw guards march in, but we didn't see the "unveiling of the colors" as promised by Rick Steves. November is typically very low tourist season; I can't imagine the crowds in the summer.

It wouldn't be a Springer vacation without some Asian tourists taking our picture. This time, I turned the camera on these paparazzi monsters to see how they liked it! (Answer: they didn't seem to mind... and neither do we.) I got this picture of some Japanese shutterbugs outside "Buck House," as the locals call it, taking our picture. We were also photographed at the Portobello Road Market, although I somehow doubt our dumb white faces were the biggest attraction in sight.

While doing some pre-travel research, I saw that we could visit Father Christmas at one of the large department stores. Harrod's was sold out, but Selfridge's had a cool train through an indoor "forest" and then we had a nice long visit with Santa. Here is Aidan looking over the "Nice" list for his name.

It was a really full trip for just two full days (and two travel days... but that's another story). We could have easily spent another, oh, I don't know, six months seeing all of the sights. We agreed that next time we'd have to leave the kids at home- we barely saw any other children while we were there. Either they were all at boarding school out in the country, or London is where all of the adults from Logan's Run end up. I'm betting on the latter.

Land of Plenty

I really like pictures taken in the grocery store. My mom has one of her shopping in the bread aisle in the seventies that I found really fascinating as a child (and still do). I think it's really cool to see such a mundane task immortalized through photography, and it's interesting to see the overwhelming amount of food and products in American grocery stores that we overlook when we're actually in there, shopping.

This isn't a great picture, but here's my baby girl posing among frozen meats and bottled water.

Soccer Season ended....uh, six weeks ago

I am behind, but here is a picture of Aidan on his last day of soccer season. He did OK... he really wasn't into it this year, but he is only four (three for most of the season) so there is always next year.

Take this job...

My job stinks. I know I've probably said that in some form or another to everyone I know, but I want to re-iterate it. Every day that goes by, I get a little dumber and I loose a little bit more of my faith in humanity. Today I sat in on a briefing on my organization's plan to "transform". I've sat in on many, many, many briefs like this one, but this one was the biggest waste of time that I've ever been a part of. No one in that room benefited from anything that was said. Nobody. Not even a little benefit. Two hours that I'll never get back. Two hours closer to my death. But as I'm sitting there, I thought that it would be a good idea to illustrate my progressive disillusionment with my job over the years. So here's what I cooked up:



Finally! Something useful that I've created with all my Powerpoint skills! Of interest is how as time has progressed and my job satisfaction has decreased, my satisfaction with the place that I'm living has grown. In fact, I'm ecstatic about living in Italy now. Now if I could only get a different job...

Lack of Time

I know it's been almost a month since Jessica and I have posted here. What can I say? It's been a long month for us both. After Halloween, I was sent to Germany for a business trip. Following that, there was a helicopter crash near Aviano on the 8th that killed six soldiers; two army and four air force. My organization selected me to provide assistance to the surviving spouse of one of the army casualties. So for the past month, I've been heavily involved with that and not had a lot of opportunity to post to the blog or anything else, for that matter.

We also went to London over Thanksgiving, so there's lots of pictures and stories from there that need to be posted as well. We've got our work cut out for us.

Meanwhile, last night Jess and I took the kids over to a friend of mine's house to watch the Army Navy game. Army got destroyed, in case anyone is interested. The game was just a pretense for us to get together with some other adults who had kids and let them run wild while we could enjoy ourselves. The guy had a great basement set-up that included a fantastic bar. We were drinking and talking there when Aidan hops up on the stool behind the bar and starts "taking orders". After minimal instruction, he started pouring beers from the tap like an old pro. Check it out:



Eventually, we had to pull him off barkeep detail because he started filling any empty glass he could get his hands on, whether someone wanted a beer or not. That's what I call service!

That's it for now. I promise that we'll get back on the blogging horse and get some more posts out for everyone. So you got that going for you... which is nice.

Optimus Prime: Destroying Decepticons, Winning Contests

First of all, who loves Joel's videos?!? Answer: Everyone!!!

Here is a montage of Aidan kicking everyone's costume-clad bottom the Halloween contest, including a close call with a mustachioed knight. Enjoy!

I don't even want to talk about it.

After much discussion and many failed efforts to fix some behavior issues, we decided to take Aidan out of his Italian school and send him to school on post instead. He had been having tantrums almost every day, and it just came down to it not being fair for Aidan to be so miserable and frustrated, or fair to the teacher and the other children for him to take up so much time and attention every day. Although the American school is farther away, cost three times as much, is shorter, and has a less healthy lunch, it just isn't possible to continue in the asilo. So, here we are.
I was so upset I cried. A lot. At the school, in front of the kids, teachers, and other parents. Humiliating. But, I think it's just the first of many times that I will have to face a situation where what I want to happen for my child just WON'T happen, despite my best efforts or my strongest wishes or my best laid plans. He may not make sports teams. He may not get into a school. He may be rejected by some girl who is not even good enough for him in the first place. And it's really humbling to know that even as the mommy, who has to make and enforce so many decisions on a daily basis, I can't always ensure that it works out the most perfect way (as imagined by me) for him.
When I was pregnant, I read something about genetic engineering and wondered if I would choose to make my child "perfect" or allow them to have whatever quirks they would normally have in order to face challenges and build character. I thought at the time that I'd opt for "normal" kids, but after having children, I know that I would totally do anything to save them from any sadness or pain- forget character.
So, I'm trying to focus on the positive, which is how excited he is to start "American school," and the fact that we were fortunate enough to get him a spot in the school- there is often a 6-month waiting list. His extremely social personality was pretty cramped by the language barrier, and I'm sure he'll enjoy talking with the kids in English and them understanding all of his stories and jokes and questions. And, although it sometimes feels like I want to believe this more than I actually do, I'm sure that this will all work out for the best and that it's all with God's blessing. I just wish he'd let me know ahead of time when these big changes were coming, so I could prepare myself...and not cry in public.

Happy Halloween!!

Unfortunately, Joel was not with us this year, and we do live in a country that doesn't really celebrate the holiday, but we still had Halloween last night!! The Army housing area held a really nice carnival and trick-or-treating. Here is Ava in her pink kitty costume (thanks, Grandma!):

She was a little tired by this point. Going backwards in time, here are some pictures of the costume contest last weekend. Guess who won a $15 gift certificate, redeemable for an awesome toy, for most unusual costume? I'll leave it up to your imagination...

I'm sure you need a close up of the finished costume-

Aidan and Ava had other events to attend, and it's sooooo embarrassing to wear the same thing twice, so here are Aidan and Ava wearing different costumes at a Moms' Club Halloween party. Aidan is a dinosaur/dragon (so is his best friend, Patrick, who is also in the picture) and Ava is a ballerina. Sure, she can't walk, but what does that have to do with anything?
So, that about wraps up the Halloween report. Make sure you send us your costume pictures!!! Thanks to Heller and Linda for already sending in their transvestite gondolier/K-Fed picture!

Don't tell Joel...

I went to the PX today to meet a friend of mine and give her a lasagna I made, since she is having a hard time. (No jokes about how she'll be worse off after eating my cooking, ahem, mom/Joel.) While I was there, I thought I'd innocently stop in and get another flannel pj set for Ava, because it gets pretty cold at night in this marble tomb of an apartment we live in. But, while in there, I saw that they were having a sale- by any 5 sale items, save an additional 25%; get 10 items, get an additional 50% off. What kind of willpower must you have to resist something like that? It's almost like you'd have to have some kind of sickness to NOT take them up on that.

So, I got $173.47 of clothes for a mere $53.17. What a deal. It's mostly pajamas, so the kids will be looking stylish 24 hours a day. Rah!

Tulanian alumni magazine, here we come!

Last week, Joel and I (and the kids) ran a Tulane table at the high school college fair. Joel was quite the salesman, trying to convince every one that walked by to go to Tulane on an ROTC scholarship. Aidan's favorite part of the night was when they started handing out pints of ice cream for some reason, even though the fall weather has definitely arrived and ice cream was probably the last thing anyone else wanted. For my part, I was primarily motivated by the $50 gift certificate all participants received. One of the funniest things to me was the Harvard table- does anyone really need convincing to go to Harvard??

The Great Pumpkin

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, especially when we are able to crank up the smoke machine, but it has been a little subdued lately. Last year, we were en route to Korea, and had no pumpkin of our own. This year, we're in Italy, and while they do celebrate the holiday to some degree (mostly limited to bar parties) there's no trick or treating or yard decorating or any of the usual Halloween type events like in the states. So, we decided to carve one of our pumpkins early to get Aidan in the spirit.

Joel got the carving kit at the grocery store, and Aidan picked out a picture of a monster carrying a trick-or-treat bag. He was really into it at first:

But, he decided the insides were too gross and refused to help scoop out the pumpkin. No fear, that's mommy's favorite job!

Then he took a rest while Joel worked on the design.

The finished product- pretty awesome!!!!

Unfortunately, this pumpkin totally rotted away in a few days, due to us keeping it inside in the warm house and lighting it every morning during breakfast and every night during dinner, at the request of one little boy. No problem; there are four more pumpkins outside our front door, waiting to be carved!

More, please!

At Ava's 4 month check up, the doctor suggested that she could start to eat some solid foods, starting with rice cereal. Always one to rely on the advice of a medical professional, I started her on milky cereal...over a month later. But, she has caught on and is eating well. So well, in fact, that we don't really have any of those classic baby pictures with tons of food on her face and clothes. She's actually quite mannerly.

I'll have you know I'm really a Romanesco Broccoli

I found this at the commissary the other day, and although I have absolutely no intention of actually eating it, I bought it anyway with the sole intention of showing Joel (and you, the viewing public, of course). The little sign at the store said it was a green cauliflower, but I looked online and the pictures I saw of green cauliflower actually looked like green cauliflower, not like 3-D edible fractals. So, I don't even know if it really IS green cauliflower, or some disgusting mutation from a cauliflower and a broccoli mating. Just looking at it and thinking about eating it really creeps me out. Anyway, now it can just sit in the fridge and rot and slime up my crisper like all of the other vegetables I buy. Good riddance, freaky nubby space veggie!

Transformers Update

There's a costume contest coming up this Saturday for the kids on post. So the heat is on for me to wrap up this Transformers costume. Tonight I finished up the details on the shoulder pieces and constructed the foot sections. Here's a peek at me handiwork:





Should have the finished product done sometime tomorrow or Wednesday. Tune in for the exciting conclusion!

More Transformers

Worked a little more on Aidan's costume this weekend. Time's getting short and I need to wrap it together soon. There's a contest next weekend that we want to have him enter with the costume. Maybe we'll win that gift certificate to Cinnabon!

Anyway, worked today on getting the autobot stencil for the shoulder pieces. As everyone knows, Optimus Prime has two autobot decals on his shoulders. No self-respecting Prime costume would be without them. I got the design from an autobot picture off the interwebs. Then I traced it over in Adobe Illustrator and printed it onto cardstock. A little work with the Xtaco knife yielded a workable stencil. Here's a quick test run. Pretty sharp, I think.

Jump Around

Every year around now, all the retail outlets start trotting out the holiday crap for everyone to start choking on. My personnel favorites are the dancing santas, snowmen, and elves that sing holiday songs or other popular tunes.

Aidan and I were at the PX on post today and came across one of these singing things. This one was a penguin choir that sang a little tune and danced and shook around. The choice of the song, however, was a little odd. It was not a Christmas song, or even a holiday song. It was the 1992 House of Pain hit single "Jump Around". Now, why these penguins were singing Jump Around, we may never know. However, Aidan got a kick out of the singing penguins and took their decidedly un-holiday anthem to heart. I was there to capture all the action. Check it out.

More than meets the eye

First off, big thanks to my parents for turning around a package to me very quickly. I had ordered something from Amazon (you'll see it in a minute) that they wouldn't ship to Italy. What might this piece of contraband be that Amazon, in their unrelenting corporate responsibility, saw fit to prohibit from shipping to Italy? Explosives? No. Demolition how-to manuals? Of course not. High end computer technology? Closer.

It's the Optimus Prime voice changing helmet, of course! What would happen if this fell into the wrong hands? Here's Aidan, totally enamoured with his new toy:





Wow. Pretty cool. And it can be adjusted to fit adult heads too. As soon as Halloween is over, this baby is mine. Which brings me to my next issue: Halloween costumes.

This year, I took it as a labor of love to make Aidan's Halloween costume myself. I enjoy making stuff like that, and thought this would be a good opportunity to flex that creative muscle. So at the beginning of the month, when Aidan asked for a Transformer costume, I knew I had my work cut out for me. After two weeks spending some free time in the garage, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After having cut and fit the chest plate, shoulder, and arm pieces from scrap cardboard, last night I went for the initial paint. Here's what that looked like:



The chest piece is laying flat here, but it folds up to make an Optimus-looking body for a 4 year old. I covered the cardboard in clear packing tape, because the paint coated it well and gave the tape a glossy metallic look. More robot-y. I'll have more pics as I get it together and have Aidan put it on. But once that happens, we might not get it off of him again.

Email Follow Up

Joel hit on most of the funny emails we were checking out the other day, but he did forget to mention one idea, which was to come up with the most confusing email address possible. We came up with this, which is (not surprisingly) still available: number1dot.@gmail.com or even mynameatgeemaledotcom@gmail.com
Also, I don't know if it was clear from his post that I started taking a dance class, so there are some emails making fun of my tap dancing mixed in with simpsons jokes and also my catch phrase, "I don't like that." And, while I do really like "This American Life" and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," even checking into npr.lover was a total joke. I'm not an anything lover, which is the problem, I guess- if only I was really, really into something, I could announce it to the world via my email address, unashamedly. But, here we are. Perhaps widespread.ennui is the most appropriate...

As yet unclaimed emails

Call me Johnny Bandwagon-Jumper. Yesterday I signed up for a Gmail account and I'm in the process of switching over from my old Hotmail address. It seemed like a good idea, so I was trying to talk Jessica into switching her old Yahoo Mail address over to Gmail too. She's been wanting to get a new email in the hopes of thwarting the penis enlargement spammers that have somehow been targeting her.

She's been meaning to switch for a while, but a critical requirement for her is having a cool email address. Currently, she's rocking standardlines, which is from an indie song lyric that she liked. She was trying to get awesomej, which is her Wii nickname. Unfortunately, that was taken by someone; perhaps someone more awesome.

So we were playing around on the Gmail sign-up sheet with trying to find another equally cool email address. As we were trying out different names, we were surprised to find out which names were available and which weren't. We explored a couple of different themes and tried out different logins within that framework. For example, Islamic extremists:

Available
- jihad. mamma

Unavailable
- i.heart.jihad
- mohammad.jihad

Another discovery was that certain words were not allowed in any address. Like the F-word, for example. This eliminated a whole series of great emails, like:

Unavailable
- f***.a.monkey
- monkey.f***

We tried a number of Transformer related emails, mostly for my entertainment.

Unavailable
- optimus.prime
- megatron

Available
- megatron1000000
- i.heart.megatron
- i.heart.optimus
- optimus.rulez

We hit a couple of other themes, but were unable to decide on a good handle for Jessica. Any suggestions based on these results?

Unavailable
- androids.dungeon
- NPR.lover
- i.dont.like.that
- shuffle.hop.step
- 742evergreenterrace
- areyouhavingalaugh

Available
- horn.of.gondor
- tiptapscrap
- miss.springfield
- little.dog.lover
- edna.krabapple
- widespread.ennui

League Night

I come from a family of hard-core bowlers, so it was no surprise that Aidan would pick up the sport so easily. Note the avante-garde pin arrangement.

Fall Arts and Crap

My "friend" Mandy once described my decorating style as "arts and crap," but I prefer to describe it instead as having Martha Stewart-aspirations. I guess there's not a lot difference, only the skill level. Anyway, I had Aidan work on some fall decorations I wanted made (one more reason to have children: slave labor). Here is the centerpiece we made by cutting leaves out of construction paper and painting them.






We first got the leaves wet and crumpled them, then let them dry before proceeding to step two, the paining. I like to call this the "dirty water" technique: Aidan got the paint brush wet and then dipped in about five colors of water color paint. It made the leaves look really mottled. And awesome.





Here is a wreath Aidan made, using the same technique, except not crumpling first. We glued the leaves on a cardboard circle. Cheap!