A Home in Mound

 

We are still waiting for the baby's arrival here in Mound. Janet is very uncomfortable, and wants to have the baby now. She feels she could go anytime. Keep tuned here for the good news.

means we need to torture people, according to this administration. At least the part of the administration that agrees with Vice President Cheney. The rest they just leave in the dark....

This New Yorker article shows some details.... (warning... very long, but insightful)

You can find a short version at Washington Monthly... (for those in a hurry)

I'm all steamed up about this now... and cannot find a nice non-political link... so for the locals out there... check out Eric Perkins Blog from the Olymics (from Perk at Play on KARE 11). It's kinda fun, even if you are like me, and not following the Olympics at all!

Pouring Ketchup

The full technical explanation

We have started going through some of Merrill's old photos. It's been interesting trying to learn who's related to who and all that.

This photo was mailed to us from a relative (Darlene Erickson) of Velma's today. It Merrill, Velma, and Janet at about one year old. 

The nice thing about the steep roof, snow doesn't stay on top of them!

It's been years since I've walked on a frozen lake. It always kind of nerve-wracking taking those first steps, listening for creaks, looking for cracks, and trying to feel if the ice is going to give way. I guess if hundreds of snowmobilers can ride on it, I should be able to walk on it. 

I've been meaning to take some pics of the house while standing on the ice. The weather has seemed cold enough that I thought it would hold me weight, so I ventured out while Maeve was napping. 

From "The Daily Show"

Jon Stewart: "I'm joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?

Rob Corddry: "Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Wittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.

"And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face."

Jon Stewart: "But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak."

Jon Stewart: "That's horrible."

Rob Corddry: "Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know 'how' we're hunting them. I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little 'covey' of theirs.

Jon Stewart: "I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob."

Rob Corddry: "Well, whatever it is they do ... coo .. they're cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.

Jon Stewart: "Okay, well, on a purely human level, is the vice president at least sorry?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, what difference does it make? The bullets are already in this man's face. Let's move forward across party lines as a people ... to get him some sort of mask."

Now Ella pushes Maeve and Grandpa around in the chair. 

Grandpa spins the girls on the spinning chair. 

joins the girls in the ball pool... and started throwing balls at Grandma, Grandpa, nd me. 

"We're supposed to be decorating Maeve!" 

Maeve has a better idea. 

But not entirely sure what to do. 

some Valentine cookies. 

A Valentine's Day gift from Grandma. 

so we made yellow Valentine hats. I think they work. 

For the first time. Not quite sure what to do but hold on tight to the hair! 

This is adorable... I think Avae at this point was walking around her mother saying "Ashes... ashes..." (we all fall down). 

Sara invited Maeve to sit in a photo shoot last Thursday. I didn't realize Maeve would be the only one who would be sitting still long enough. It was quite a scene in the studio with Avae and Ella running around, with Maeve just sitting there, watching them. There are these very precious photos though. 

We had a great time. Soon there will be a fourth kid in these pictures. 

Sara works on getting Maeve bigger. 

Really... we all had fun! 

... for our fireplace. Thank you Jon and Ella for your help!

Sara and Jon and the girls came over for dinner Friday night. We served pork chops with Saurkraut, another recipe from our Grandma's recipe book. They were great!

We also tried doing the scalloped potatoe recipe... first tip, 5 pounds of potatoes is a lot of potatoes, enought to feed a dozen and then some... I think also I might have let them sit out too long before putting them into the oven, as they came out black and icky looking. We'll try them again someday soon. 

I left Maeve alone in her room for a short while today as I dealt with Merrill. Here's the resulting mess. 

On a Friday morning. Maeve keeps taking apart my towers! How Rude! 

Met Sara and the girls at the Mall. Maeve got her first ride in a double stoller. Soon she'll be the big girl in the double stroller! 

Maeve and I started Kindermusik this week. Here she is with Lucy enjoying a book. 

Getting ready to go home! 

And ready for bed to boot! 

I'm sure there are a couple out there.... 

We have had too few evenings here in Mound of everyone one home relaxing. Something is always coming up, and we are doing something, or one of us is gone. Tonight was just a nice relaxing evening.

The fun started at dinner, and I turned the radio off, and looked through our CD stand for something to play that we might enjoy. When I say we, I mean Janet and I.

Well then I see a CD labeled, Wayne King - The Waltz King. I know this is one of Merrill's favorite bands, and so I played it without saying anything, and watched his reaction.

The first song played, "The Waltz you Saved for Me". It's a favorite of his I know, because we had the band play it at our wedding. The piece played through, with no discernable reaction from him. The next piece played, and about halfway through, and he looked up and asked, "Is this 'old time' music?" We laughed and said it was. By the next tune, he was starting to sing along, and asked for it to be turned up, he clearly enjoyed it.

Toward the end of the CD, I took Maeve and waltzed around the room with her, and then we asked mommy to dance too.

Truly a special evening.

I'm trying real hard not to make this blog political... but want to follow up on one bit of the State of the Union address Tuesday night. At one point President Bush was discussing science and how he is against human cloning, and then he said he wanted to ban human-animal hybrids....

huh?!

It's the kind of thing that is easy to make jokes about (insert your own Manimal reference here), but a here's a possible explanation that hit close to home for me here...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/02/president_panders_to_antimanim.php

To paraphrase (if you don't want to read the link)- scienctist are looking for tools to help them study Down Syndrome. Since there is not a similar condition in the animal world, they are trying to genetically engineer mice with Down Syndrome. If they are successful, and they seem to have had some success, they may be able to use these mice to understand Down Syndrome better, and help people like my daughter.

So is the president against research like this?

Ok... my non-political link... the new "planet" discovered last year... might be bigger then Pluto.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060201/ap_on_sc/new_planet;_ylt=AsIvCsry28uhWgKqCtBM_qys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-