The woodpecker

Almost a week after Jonathan’s visit in March, Yoli shot a little video of the woodpecker across the street from us. This woodpecker drove us insane for a while, waking us up too early each morning with its noisy pecking. She’s shooting the video from far away, but the sound in the video is loud and clear. That might give you an idea of what we were dealing with.

The happy ending of the story (for us) was that the folks who live in that house had the tree cut down, and the woodpecker went elsewhere. We’ve slept better ever since.

Continue reading “The woodpecker”

Jadzia: less picky

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Here’s Jadzia eating some buñuelos, not long after our return from Bolivia. We’ve seen a lot of improvement in her since then. During the trip she was eating primarily yogurt and crackers everyday. This past week, though, she has begun asking us to eat things from our plates. She has eaten some casseroles with chicken and rice, some lentil soup, and other stuff. This is VERY encouraging to us!

Early wake-up call / Bebe numero dos

This morning Yoli and I awakened at 4:45 a.m. We were preparing to get her and Jadzia to the airport for their trip to Bolivia. I will be joining them next week. That’s an early morning for someone who works until at least 11:30 p.m. every night. On the bright side, it gave me some extra time after I dropped them off to scan some in some recent ultrasound pictures of our next baby (see below)!

This is not a “traveling light” trip, my preferred modus operandi. Yoli will be making a wedding cake and also teaching a cake-decorating class at El Jordán during this trip, so she took all the pots and pans, etc.

Yoli and Jadzia’s trip will last three weeks; I will join them next Sunday, so I’ll be there for two weeks. During this week, Yoli will post a few entries on our Bolivia weblog. Once I join her, I will be posting stuff there as well, so please check often!

Anyway, I know what you really want to see are the ultrasound photos. Here they are:



Comics poll

Okay, it’s no secret. I really enjoy newspaper comics. But one thing that bugs me about the newspaper comics is the way so many papers cling to ancient strips, stale and moldy, drawn by their creators’ grandchildren.

The Post-Dispatch is apparently going to get rid of some strips and bring in fresh, new ones. This is potentially a very good thing. (Disclaimer: I work for the Post-Dispatch)

Want to help decide who they dump? Then vote by clicking here

Of course I have some strips I really would like to see go. I would highly encourage you to vote against Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, B.C., and Hagar the Horrible. If only they had included Lola (the bane of my existence) or Mallard Fillmore (I am a conservative, but I hate this unfunny strip) on this survey!

Not all the old strips are stale. In fact, I’ve become a fan of stuff like Mark Trail (whose stories are so bad they are funny), Prince Valiant (good art, decent stories), and Curtis (one of the best-drawn strips, hands-down, with some funny moments).

As far as strips I like… My favorite is Pearls Before Swine, followed by Get Fuzzy, Lucky Cow, The Duplex, and the now-Sunday-only Fox Trot.

So, please, vote. Let’s work together to revitalize the comics page!

We’re not outnumbered … yet

Well, I suppose it’s about time we proclaimed the big news: Yoli is several months pregnant! The baby is due around my dad’s birthday in August, though Yoli is hoping he/she will be born in late July (so we won’t add yet another birthday to that crammed month).

Jadzia has certainly kept us on our toes, and kept our house a constant mess. I’m not sure what we’ll do when there’s the same number of children as there are adults. I’m also not looking forward to dealing with two car seats. Somehow we will survive, though. It will be awesome for Jadzia to have a sibling to play with (though we’ll probably have to deal with the inevitable jealousy issues when the baby arrives).

Also, a little tidbit: Jadzia just got some shoes this week (she’s gone around barefoot or socked only all this time). But she doesn’t walk or stand very well in them. It’s going to take some time for her to get used to them. Another thing she’s learning to do is eat with a spoon. She’s getting better each day.

Snow = sled time

We’ve had several snows this winter, but today was the first time we were able to take Jadzia out for some sledding action. We put some hot tea in a thermos, dressed Jadzia in triple layers, and headed out.

We took her to the place my dad always took us when we were kids: Killer Hill in Florissant.

Since we didn’t own a sled, we took our trash can lid. Unfortunately, it didn’t work — at all.

So we decided to drive around and buy one. Of course the roads were still treacherous, but we eventually made it to a K-mart and found a nice blue sled. We drove back to Killer Hill and I tested it several times while Yoli fed a hungry Jadzia in the car. It worked very well and much fun ensued.

If you click the image below, you can watch video of us sledding: