Busy weekend, early mornings

Today was a jam-packed day, leading in to a jam-packed next few days.

I woke up early thinking I had an 8 a.m. appointment for a haircut. Turns out it was 9 a.m. But still, that's pretty early for me. So I went to the barber shop while Yoli and the girls went to Aldi's. After that, we all met up and walked over to the Ferguson Farmer's Market where we ate a corndog, two omelettes, and a biscotti.

Then Yoli went to work and I took care of the girls. I had to do some packing. My brother Jonathan is getting married on Sunday night and Jadzia and I are going to fly down to San Antonio for the wedding. But the girls didn't let me get as much done as I hoped.

Then a coworker called me and asked me to come to work early because she was feeling ill. So I obliged. But I was scheduled for the late shift, so I worked until 12:45 a.m. I still have some packing to do, and I know that my 6:30 a.m. wake-up call ain't gonna be pretty.

Yoli has also had her hands full, trying to make a dress for Jadzia to wear in the wedding. She basically set out to finish the dress in two nights. All I can say is "wow."

I used to be a morning person, back in the old days when my mom worked at the cafeteria of my school. But then came college and working late at newspapers.

So I'm definitely not looking forward to yet another even-earlier wake-up call on Monday morning after the wedding, when we drive home with my folks. It'll probably be 3 or 4 a.m. Yikes.

Stamped in my memory

Today, Jadzia and I were watching Mr. Rogers. Early in the show, Mr. Rogers took us to see how the Postal Service makes postage stamps. Whenever we watch Mr. Rogers, I always try to do something afterward with Jadzia that connects with the episode. So when we were done watching, I remembered my little stamp collection. I dug it out from the basement and showed it to Jadzia. Yoli gave us a magnifying glass so Jadzia could really inspect the stamps. (Truth is, she still doesn't quite get how to use a magnifying glass)

Anyway, as we went through the book, I saw my old stamps with new eyes. I realized how I am connected to the places represented by these stamps in ways I didn't know about when I was a kid collector.

Free! Free! Free!

Saturday night was Yoli's annual appreciation dinner for employees of the Ferguson Municipal Library. It was held at the Thyme Table, as usual, and the food was pretty good. This year they had a beef roast, with an egg/potato layered thing, and veggies. There was also a very nice chocolate mousse cake with an oreo crust. It all tasted even finer because it was FREE.

As were planning for the dinner, we decided to use a babysitter again and make an evening of it. I tried to come up for ideas of stuff to do afterward (art museum? history museum? some sort of concert?). I came up with something different — we should go to The Blanche.

(The Blanche, for those who don't know, is what I call the "Touhill Performing Arts Center" at UMSL)

UMSL music students were holding end-of-the-semester recitals. There was a violin and piano performance scheduled for 7:00 p.m. This seemed right up our alley, since we are a somewhat musical family... (Yoli is the one who can actually play instruments. I just sing) Anyway, Yoli and I showed up. I think we were the only ones there who were not fellow music students. But still it was a lovely hour of FREE classical music. It doesn't get much better than that!

After the concert we watched a movie called "Once" which I really, really enjoyed. It's about two brokenhearted people in Dublin — a street musician guy and a Czech immigrant girl — who hang out, sort of fall in love, and make really great music together. That description doesn't do the movie justice. Suffice it to say that it is probably one of the best films I have seen in the last year. Making it even sweeter? The fact that we checked it out for FREE from the aforementioned Ferguson Municipal Library.

Change of seasonry

It finally feels like spring.

Today I mowed the grass for the first time this year. It had become a jungle. Now it looks somewhat civilized. (I also got to bust out my new weed wacker)

The singer

In the last month or so, Jadzia has become an exuberant singer.

We have always been a singing family. We started making up songs for each of the girls when they were born. Yoli and I also both share a long history of working with children at church, so we each have repertoires of Christian children's songs (in English and Spanish respectively).

All this time we sang, but Jadzia never joined in. And then she began singing snippets of "Twinkle,Twinkle" a while back. And before long she was singing the whole song. And suddenly she was singing pretty much every other song she's ever heard in her young life.

We haven't yet shot any video of her singing yet (though we plan to do it soon), but she sings really loud ... especially if she thinks Mamá and Papá are ignoring her.

The exception to this is when "strangers" are around... She kind of clams up until she's had quite a while to warm up again.

Ludi speaks — and the world listens

Last week Ludi said her first word. It was "Pa."

But if I hadn't been there to hear it myself, I don't know if that's how it would have gone down in the record books. :)

See, not long after she said "Pa," she started saying "pa" and "ma" and "mama" all together. Yoli and I were both there are she made these babbling noises. Truth be told, she probably said "ma" a lot more. But the very *first* word was "Pa."

I am very pleased.

Swimsuits in April

Ludi tries a cracker. She doesn't really have the knack of it yet. But she has come to love eating cheerios.

Click the link below for more photos.

Revenge of the baby-sat

Any Calvin & Hobbes fans out there? Some of my favorite storylines in that comic involve Calvin's battles with his babysitter, Rosalyn.

I bring this up because we are fast-approaching a major milestone... For the first time, leaving our girls with a non-family-member babysitter.

It almost goes without saying that I have been looking forward to this for a long time.

I have loved my beautiful baby girls from the day Jadzia first arrived. But I lost a lot of freedom that day. I'll never be like I was before, that's certain. But I am really looking forward to being able to take out Yoli for a date every once in a while.

I'm just hoping my girls don't act like Calvin while we're away.

Getting to know John Becker

I've already written in detail about the murder of John A. Becker in 1917 in Chicago.

But my main purpose in researching him was to try and see if I could find out what he was like as a person. I still have a ways to go. But here's what I've found so far.

I died and went to Atari heaven

When the day comes that the Renaud Empire is firmly entrenched across the globe, one of the significant changes it will lead to is the re-establishment of the Atari computer.

Yes, those who know me well know that I always have been (and will be) an Atarian. True, I eventually became a Mac user. But in the same way that I am a Texan-in-exile who lives in St. Louis, I am also an Atarian-in-exile forced to use a Mac.

And so it was with great joy that I stumbled onto the weblog called "Dadhacker" written by a former engineer from Atari. He has some amazing stories (very well-written). Here are just two:

Donkey Kong and me - He tells how he got hired at Atari and his first project was porting Donkey Kong from the arcade to the Atari 8-bit computers.

The Atari ST - He describes Atari's implosion in the early 80s, leading to the takeover by the Tramiels. He surived the Tramiels' purge and helped with the launch of the Atari ST line of computers.

Push-ups

Yes, Ludi can do push-ups. Better than me, too. Keep reading to see a video.

The echo whisperer

In recent months, Jadzia has been greatly expanding her speech capacity in English and Spanish.

She does something now which seems unusual (though maybe other folks out there have experienced this, too). She whisper-echoes Yoli and I when we talk.

For example, if I'm reading a page in a book, after I finish the sentence or paragraph, Jadzia will quietly repeat the last word I said (or an interesting word she heard). She does this all the time, whether we are reading or whether I'm giving her a little speech about something.

It's kinda cool. It's as if you can see her brain expanding. :)

Donkey Kong and goats

A few photos for your enjoyment. This is Jadzia at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.

A memory slipping away

How is it that the war once known as "The Great War" has become the forgotten war?

Many disparate interests have gradually gotten me to think about World War I over the past few years. For example:

• Two of my favorite authors both fought in WWI: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
• John Becker, my triple-great-uncle, would have served in the Navy during the war, if he hadn't been murdered.
• The city of Ferguson has a monument in January-Wabash Park to honor its citizens who seved in WWI.

Everything I've ever read indicates just how horrible a conflict it was. Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme and later caught trench fever. He admitted that some scenes in the "Lord of the Rings," like the Dead Marshes, were drawn from his experince in northern France. The imagery of these scenes is vivid and repugnant. I can't imagine how awful the real war must have been.

There is just one living American WWI verteran left: 107-year-old Frank Buckles. I learned this from a recent article in Newsweek, The War We Forgot.

When Buckles dies, another pivotal moment in American history will slip into the ether. Most folks probably wouldn't realize it. We have no national monument to the veterans of WWI.

I don't know what, if anything, can be done about it. But it's something that weighs on my mind.

The story behind the story

If you want to learn about how I found the John Becker story, or if you're interested in what methods I have used to trace the Becker family tree, please keep reading.

The murder of John Becker

Ninety years ago, a sailor was found dead in Chicago, bloodied but still warm. His name was John Andrew Becker and he was my great-great-great-uncle.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I have uncovered many names as I have fleshed out parts of the family tree, but it has at times been hard to learn about them as individuals. In the case of John Becker, the murder generated newspaper stories, military reports, police files, coroner's inquests, and much more. This tragedy has offered a chance to learn more about a person in the family, and the people connected to him (for good or ill) at the time of his death.

What follows is my re-telling of John Becker's murder based on reading newspaper reports, a transcript of the Cook County coroner's inquest board, John Becker's military personnel file, and various death certificates.

In coming days I will also write about the process of discovering this story for anyone who's interested.