Archive Posts (Page 42)

Sophie had a rough night so I played the song “Lean on Me” for her and then said, “I’ll make you a deal. When you need someone to lean on, lean on me. And when I need someone to lean on, I’ll lean on you.”

She said, “But you’re so big…”

I made a crock-pot chicken and rice thing the other day with brussels sprouts and although it tasted fine, it smelled pretty horrible. (Don’t blame me, it was the internet’s fault.) Mamie came home and said, “It has quite a brassica smell.” Which apparently is latin for “poop.”

Sometimes I hear things like “Congress’ approval rating has fallen to 9%” and I think, Who are these 9% and what in the world do they approve of? Does congress itself get like 27,000 votes in this poll or something?

Because really, I know anecdotal blah blah blah, but I don’t know anybody who thinks congress is anything but a disaster at this point.

Sophia: Was Darth Vader always bad?

Me: No, he used to be Anakin Skywalker who was a good guy.

Sophia: What would make him turn so bad?

Me: I don’t know, his girlfriend wouldn’t go out with him anymore or some dumb thing like that.

Oh Star Wars how you let us down.

I got the sweetest Thank You note last night and, after a long day of meetings and work, it totally made my day.

CC Ariah Masters

Sophia: “I’m going to tell you everything about my day from head to toe. Actually, from toe to head, because I want to save the best part for last. Well, hmm, actually I don’t like to label…Ok, in this story the head represents the best part, but that’s just for this story because really heads and toes are both important.”

[followed by a 20 minute monologue detailing her day]

Isabel’s first quarter grades came out on Tuesday but we still don’t have them because the incredibly lousy “family link” portal on the school’s “schoolmaster” computer system is broken. Every time I deal with these kinds of things I wonder how software companies can be so bad at their jobs and still make money.

Paging Ernest Koe. Your skills are desperately needed.

One of the many things I love about Sophia is that every time I drop her off at school, there’s always one or two little tiny first or second graders who are super excited to see her and tell her something. She must be such a nice 6th grader…

This is entertainment: Sophie and her friends set Mamie’s phone to French. Then Sophie and Izzie mumbled french-like noises into it, and Maia, who actually speaks French, interpreted Siri’s responses. Somehow they managed to get it to give them a weather report.

A phone call in one act:

[Ring Ring]

Me: Hello?

Caller: Hi! This is Alizona. Is Sophdakota home?

Me: Yes. Yes she is.

It is fun being a parent sometimes.

I have come to the realization that no matter what I do, what furniture I acquire, what clothing I procure, or how I compose myself, I will never be as comfortable, for even 5 minutes, as my cat is about 85% of her time.

Dave Ramsey explains why the way healthcare works effectively in the rest of the world is mathematically impossible, and the dysfunctional way it works in America is necessary. Dream big, America.

Sophia’s in breakfast heaven this week. In honor of her new braces (and in deference to her sore teeth) we’re having a different hot grain cereal each day. Cream of Wheat yesterday. “Special” Oatmeal today. Corn meal mush tomorrow.

These are a few of her favorite things. Any suggestions for Friday?

Sylvester Stallone should make a movie about an actor who used to play boxers, but now he’s too old to play a boxer and for some reason he has to come out of retirement to play a boxer one more time.

Isabel’s reading Catcher in the Rye today.

Me: How’s Holden?

Isabel: Good.

Me: Is he making bad decisions?

Isabel: No. Well, unless you count leaving his school and …

So this just happened:

Sophia: “Get me a glass of water.”

Me: “Get it yourself. I’m not your servant.”

Sophia: “Eh…I’m not that thirsty.”

[5 minutes later, I get myself a glass of water, drink half of it, and then because I’m a softy I take the rest to her.]

Me: Wait, you have a glass of water already.

Sophia: Oh yeah. I forgot about that.

Facebook is just recycling old posts in my news feed right now. Interpretation: You’re all watching breaking bad instead of posting to facebook.

Today Sophia asked me why a painted typographic business sign she saw looked so “wrong”. I explained the concept of kerning and the paradoxical phenomenon that what is mathematically precise doesn’t always “look right”. This, I said, is one thing that separates good typography from bad.

We had a lovely discussion and then she said, “Adrian Monk would be a TERRIBLE typographer.”

She can work Monk into any conversation.

I’m not usually a fan of rant-music, but this one is done with so much humor and self-effacing unpretentiousness that when the rant starts to escalate it is really great. Another iTunes Radio discovery.

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I think if you lined up all the laundry you ever washed, it would tell a touching story of your life.

I dropped off Sophie’s application for 7th grade at Metropolitan Arts today and the place was crawling with kids with wild hair in crazy outfits. It was very cute. Can you say “cute” about middle- and high-schoolers? Anyway: Cute.

I upgraded my phone to iOS 7 yesterday, which includes many new ring and alert tones, so I thought, “What the heck, I’ll customize…” and now my phone makes all kinds of noises I can’t interpret. What was I thinking?

I’m drinking water from a water bottle that doesn’t taste disgusting. How is this possible, you ask? Because I just bought a silicone-wrapped glass water bottle and I am very happy about it.

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Listening to the radio this morning, all I could think of was this line from the brilliant 80s classic, 99 Red Balloons:

“The war machine springs to life, opening one eager eye…”

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