Monday, August 20, 2007

I Don't Doubt You For a Second, Kid

I don't read or link Hanzi Smatter nearly enough. I may have overdosed a couple of years ago, who knows. It will be hard to beat this post, and maybe knowing . Tian (the proprietor) is a hell of a guy, he very kindly answered some questions about about my friend Shay's condo tiles, and even blogged about them. Which was very cool of him. Tian will forever be my hero for this, which makes my day even now, after all this time.

So I hadn't seen Tian's site for a while, and it's still great. It always was, I'Anyfart, Tian linked Engrish.com for some reason (he often does) and I had never been there, so I took a look and enjoyed it. Found this picture there, in fact. Seems like a nice kid.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Bad Daddy

I've done a lot of dumb things in my life, and I'm ashamed to report that some of them have involved my sweet daughter Sabrina. Two in particular come to mind: first, throwing a cell phone up the stairs, over a railing and through a door into our bedroom, where it bounced off Mommy and hit Sabrina in the head (I can't imagine a way to make doing that sound like a good idea, even though it made perfect sense to me at the time); and now, what you see on her forehead at left. I thought a flying mount of the stroller by Sabrina as she ran alongside it would be fun for all, but when I got her in the seat she tried to jump out, dead ahead as we were still moving at a decent clip. I was torn between speeding up enough to knock her back in the seat and hoping she'd have the sense to stay put long enough for me to stop, or slowing down as gently as possible and hoping she'd compensate backward in self-defense. I went with #2 and you can see the result (pic is from the next day).

I'd like to believe I made the right choice. We were pretty much dead stopped when she toppled out and landed flat on her feet, and then her knees, tummy, arms and forehead, and she almost didn't fall at all. But that doesn't change the fact that I did something dumb with the baby in front of my wife (and apparently a couple of my friends who were watching from a nearby disc golf tee box) and had to be punished. I pushed the stroller ashamedly behind mommy as she carried my screaming daughter home. I think she left the pebbles from the jogging path stuck to her face all the way home just to make sure I felt as bad as possible, but she says she thought they were really embedded and were keeping her from bleeding (I'm quite sure that I'm not allowed to pursue that line of reasoning further and will now drop it if I have any sense).

All in all, much less damage than we expected for this particular injury. It could have been a lot worse, of course. Sabrina is never so happy as when she barely escapes major injury, and she trusts us completely to keep her out of trouble. She'll jump from anything to anything else, or to nothing at all, if we're close enough to catch her, and laughs her ass off when we barely save her from cracking her head open. She can't swim worth a damn but will launch toward either of us from the steps or the side of the pool, usually after shedding her swim ring.

I love all that about my daughter, and I'm sure she'll be fine despite many adventures, but I worry about Mommy's anxiety level. Let's break her in easy, OK Sabrina?

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Friday, August 03, 2007

The One Decent Picture

We got of Sabrina during the family reunion in July. Which is sad, because there were many opportunities. Of the pictures we did get, many of them were fogged (cold camera, hot/sticky weather outside and not enough time to equalize) and the others were dark and icky. A grand time was had by all, and everyone remarked afterward that the kids had all behaved wonderfully. I for one hope that continues, now that I understand how much a single unhappy child can change the whole group's mood no matter how large the group.

I feel bad about the lack of pics, but baby, that's just the way it is baby . . .

America, Heck Yeah

Skinny Bean knows what I like, and what I like (and want to bring back) is crazy daredevils hanging off of skyscrapers, driving motorcycles along high wires with their families hanging off the handlebars, and other such dangerous stupidities as entertained the average American back in the '20s. Man do we need more of this. Thanks Timmy!