Calvin Said Something Funny

Just eating a popsicle… #nbd

We went to the Mexican place up the street a few weeks ago while Meg was at Kids for Christ and, while Brooke and I were having a conversation, the following ensued:

Calvin: “What’s a ‘teenager’?”

Brooke: “Well, a ‘teenager’ is a big kid. Like Cooper from church.”

Calvin: “Then what’s a ‘Ghostbuster?'”

After this, Brooke and I could barely contain ourselves, so we couldn’t really inquire further.  We can only assume Calvin equates teenagers with Ghostbusters, though how exactly Calvin learned of “Ghostbusters,” in the first place, eludes us.

Perhaps you had to be there…

“This Is The One Thing That I Know”

Chillin' in the back seat...
Chillin’ in the back seat…

An exchange from last night’s car ride home between Meg and I:

“What do you want to listen to, Meg?”

“I want to hear ‘This is the one thing that I know’!”

“What…uh…seriously?!”

“‘This is the one thing that I know’!”

“You mean, this song?”

“Yes!”

It took me a few seconds for me to understand what Meg was saying, and then translate those words into a song I knew (“Liquid,” by Jars of Clay).  It frequently takes me awhile to grasp her requests for songs, but I picked up on this one somewhat quickly.  I had to ask Brooke about this later and she said they hadn’t listened to that song recently.  To our knowledge, the last time Meg heard it was when we were playing it just prior to the Good Friday service at church, when we last played it.  And that was March 29th.

It isn’t the first time something like this has happened.  I’m reminded of another song she wanted to sing a month or two ago when we were in Hannibal, “Forever Reign” (though she recited the first few lines as “You are dead, you are dead, you are nothing to me…”  For the record, those aren’t the correct lyrics.).

Meg’s pretty good at remembering random things from a long time ago, especially things you didn’t think she was paying attention to.  Thankfully, she appears to grasp music better than other details, which hopefully means she will be at least as good as I am at just “picking up” a song and playing it.  We’ll just have to make sure she focuses on sight-reading a bit more than I did.

At the same time, if you ask her what she did at school that say, all she’ll tell you is “I don’t know.”  Clearly she knows, but for some reason, doesn’t want to tell you.  We’re working on this, too.

Still, at times like last night, I have to wonder how her little mind is working…

Asplode!

Brooke and I were watching “House, M.D.” on Friday night in the office after Meg went to bed when we heard a loud “pop.” Not so much a “pop” as much as a “who’s shooting at us?!”

Well, turns out one of Brooke’s Hard Apple Cider bottles continued fermenting to the point where it generated enough CO2 to explode all over our dining room.  It sent glass flying across the room, including 8 ft in the air where it caught a nice, large shard in the curtains (pictured above).  We found small bits of glass spread throughout the room.

The Cider is now sitting outside in our metal trash can (sans trash, of course), where it will be a bit…safer…for everyone involved.  🙂

We had opened up some of the stuff last Wednesday night and I noted that it had lost some of the sweetness it had a few weeks ago, and the carbonation had increased.  The champagne yeast, apparently, is more hearty than we’d initially thought.  That, or the brown sugar Brooke added to “prime” the cider for bottling ended up being more than was necessary.

Either way, if you have a bottle of our cider sitting in your fridge, I’d recommend you open it and drink it immediately.  And do it over a sink.  It can get messy. 🙂

Transcript Follows

An interchange of text messages between Brooke and I are as follows:

Brooke: “Guess who broke her rope but didn’t run away?”

Andy: “Sam? Oh wait…you said ‘her’… Meg? ;-)”

Brooke: “Yep. When i said day care i meant tied up with a rope.”

Guess you had to be there… 😛

Thank you, Trader Joe’s lady

Friday night we took our “it’s Mardi Gras and we only have one car to use” trip to Trader Joe’s together and as we were checking out, the very friendly employee gave us this gem about the pig and the chicken:

“Sure, the chicken contributed to breakfast, but the pig really committed.”

Now, everyone go find a way to use this one in conversation this week!

Closest thing to a baby we could find…

edie_snugglie

Brooke had a 20% off coupon for Big Lots burning a hole in her pocket, so we went by to look up car seats and any other baby toys we could find.  We found one car seat that looks promising, but they certainly didn’t have much selection (not unexpected).

However, Brooke did find a Snugli, which she thinks I’ll be wearing eventually.  Brooke’s planning on using a Peanut Shell-style sling, but as I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing one, this Snugli thing will have to work.

Anyway, we aren’t having a baby until February, so how does one test out the new toy?  Well, we find the next best thing:  an unsuspecting beagle.

Needless to say, she didn’t last  long in the Snugli.  Maybe I’ll try it again using the pug down the street.

Conehead

edie_cone

So, we’d noticed for the last few weeks that Edie has been scratching her hind legs quite a bit, to the point where last week, we started locking her out of the bedroom so we could sleep through the night.  Two years ago, around this time of the year, she had a similar problem that the vet said was due to “hot spots.”  Last year, it wasn’t nearly as bad, but she did scratch a little bit.  Two years ago, the vet gave us some prednisone and antibiotics and they took care of the problem kinda rapidly…but cost us $150…  Since she “got over it” last year, we decided to let it go and see what happened.

Well, we got back from Branson, after leaving Edie at Kennelwood for the weekend, and she had scratched herself down to the skin…  Brooke took her in to the vet and, again, they gave us prednisone and an antibiotic…but this time, Edie got a cone…  🙂  She’ll have to wear it for 3 days non-stop, and then will have to wear it when we aren’t at home for a few more days.

Anyway, hopefully she’ll get better quickly, ’cause she’s having issues climbing stairs (again) and I’m all about having her back to normal.  Either way, the puppy dog sure is cute with a cone around her head.

To Put Things In Perspective

I really like Jon Stewart’s compilations off right-wing hypocrisy (you know, like when Bill O’Reilly says that it was the Nazis that went in and disrupted meetings…when, at the time, he was talking about Democrats… I doubt he still agrees…), which is why I post this. It’s a few minutes into the video, but the rest of it is very much worth the watch, anyway.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Healther Skelter
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

It just puts things in perspective, better than I’d heard elsewhere thus far.

On a side-note, Rawstory.com had a blurb up about how Jon Stewart is actually loved (well, “respected,” at least…) by many Neoconservatives, including Bill Kristol.

From the article:

“‘There is genuine intellectual curiosity,’ [Cliff] May told New York [Magazine]. ‘He’s [Jon Stewart] a staunch liberal, but he’s a thoughtful liberal, and I respect that.’ May isn’t the only conservative gushing about Stewart. While the movement professes a disdain for the ‘liberal media elite,’ it has made an exception for the true-blue 46-year-old comedian. ‘He always gives you a chance to answer, which some people don’t do,’ says John Bolton, President Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations and a Fox News contributor, who went on the show last month. ‘He’s got his perspective, but he’s been fair.’ Says Bolton: ‘In general, a lot of the media, especially on the left, has lost interest in debate and analysis. It has been much more ad hominem. Stewart fundamentally wants to talk about the issues. That’s what I want to do.'”

The author of the Rawstory article calls Jon Stewart “this generation’s Mark Twain,” and I think I’d have to agree.

Science Again Confirms What We Already Knew

Edie isn’t the brightest bulb on the chandelier, or sharpest tack in the box, or whatever…but she certainly isn’t the smartest dog around, either.

And now, science has proven it.

A group at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver found that dogs can learn and respond to around 165 words, which places them in the same league as the average two-year-old. Amongst the highest performers, you would find Border Collies, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. Heck, even the Poodle is up there.

Who’s at the bottom?

Well, among others, the Bassett Hound and the Beagle.

What’s Edie? Well, she’s mostly Beagle, but pretty sure there’s some Bassett Hound in ‘er somewhere, too…

I guess this explains a lot…