No Longer Entirely One-Sided

Daylight conversations in the Hoffman house generally consist of me keeping up a constant stream of natter, occasionally interspersed with increasingly intelligible utterances by Peabo; we're still in that period where she frequently makes sense to me or Gene, but few others (though apparently her bilingualism is coming on a treat, at least according to our two Spanish speaking babysitters), and most of the time, her statements are "I want" type things: "outside", "that", "more". She does actually say "thank you" consistently now, which is thrilling and charming in equal measure (technically it's TENKZ! but that is thank you, I assure you), and we spend a lot of time getting her to say the word "squirrel" because it's screamingly funny (SKEERL!).

All that being said, we have not had much experience in information giving, if you will; I should say rather information that requires action, until just now. To wit, I was standing in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch, and she trots in, looks at me and says, quite clearly, "I pood". I made some non-committal noise like "oh?" thinking she's just making noise. Again, louder, "I POOD". Finally dawns on stupid mother that maybe checking the diaper is useful, and bugger me, she had. Needless to say, I made a huge deal out of how helpful that was for her to come and impart said information, la la la - she was pleased with herself, I was pleased with herself, and the world just got a little bit easier.

In keeping with the facilities themed post for today, Bean has finally discovered that using the regular bathroom installation is not scary and now will use it after school quite easily and consistently. Is this a small step? Yes, in many ways, but for us - a massive one. I had accepted the fact that we might be dealing with other methods of waste management forever, but I'm realizing that maybe - just maybe - we're on the right track. I think kids with cerebral palsy can have a really challenging time with toilet training, no matter which part you're dealing with, so *anything* that helps in that direction is like getting an Oscar and a Nobel Prize in one.

I really hope no one was eating while reading this...back to normal, non-potty topics tomorrow.

Mood: Pedantic

Let me start off by assuring y'all I love the movie "Gladiator", even with all the hacking and gore and stuff that I kind of knit or websurf through, but I have to say, the thing that irritates me to hell and back is reading the "Goofs" section on IMDB. I mean, some of these goofs are just so ridiculously dumb it makes you want to gnaw your own arm. A budget that big and they couldn't be bothered to have a proper Roman historian fact checker on staff?

I once thought that a greatly fun job would be just that, a research drone for movies and television; it only just now dawned on me that, shit - I'm sort of on the right path for doing something like that, particularly with an undergrad degree in history. Heh!

Oh, don't worry, I'll do something far more communally beneficial with my degree, I promise. I can still make a hobby out of being a snarky pedant.

WWJR?

I'd like to think Jesus had a sense of humor, and he would read Cracked. I know this article makes anyone with half a brain cell giggle.

Two of my favorite lines are:

It's not that all Christians are crazy, it's just that the religion seems to give certain types of crazy people a chance to shine. These are the ones who can't worry about the homeless because they're too busy doing things like decoding secret gay propaganda in cartoons.

and

Both Focus on the Family and the American Family Association complained about a Spongebob video that was delivered to schools in which Spongebob has the balls to try to teach children to be accepting of others. Now you know Jesus isn't going to stand for that shit.

I have to say, I'm not one to believe in the Second Coming, I'll be honest, but there is a part of me that would love to see it happen if only to hear Jesus say "Yeah, ok, all the intolerance stuff in my name? BAD MOVE. Y'all be fucked. See you on the other side!"

Slutbucks and SpongeBob. Jesus Christ.

Moving ON!

As many of my classes are online, I have ended up reading the lectures rather than fight with the video/audio versions, particularly for Information Retrieval, since the instructor is a scream, but also has an occasionally impenetrable accent. At any rate, he is this crusty, funny guy who did his undergrad and initial post-grad work at Wuhan University in China, and then his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I believe that's what is called a 'hardship posting'.

Reading the lectures are almost funnier than hearing them, particularly when he is being dismissive of things. My current giggle is this line:

I stole a kind of expanded view of their MESH subject headings from somewhere. I'm not going to tell you where I stole it, but I just got an expanded view here, so that you can get a quick feeling here.

I know it's not as funny to anyone else, but you have to understand, I can hear him saying "I stole this, and I'm not going to tell you where...MOVING ON! Classification and subject indexing to discuss! Moving on!"

Well, you know, everyone needs their carrots to get through readings, c'mon, folks.

Happiest Smell In The World

Fresh basil with local heirloom tomatoes.

That is all.

Who Knew?

Utilizing Craigslist for kid crap is one of the more efficacious decisions I've ever made - it's already used, so you don't care if it gets beaten up, and for the most part, it's pretty cheap. What more do you need? I picked this up tonight for the girls, primarily Peabo as she's the shortest in the house, but also because she loves playing outside and we just didn't have much in the way of outdoor structures suitable for toddlering. In passing, I had to lash the bottom part to the roof of my car in order to get it home, and it was an excellent example of the maxim, "Never trust any knot not your own". The woman from whom I bought it was quite nice and helpful but I had to pull over around the corner from her house and reconfigure things without entirely starting over. At least I know I maintain a basic understanding of like...physics.

Anyway, I was thinking it might be fun to look on eBay and see if I could find some durable kitchen/food toys for the little house, and came across this listing:

Little Tykes Beauty Salon Victorian Kitchen Phone

Can anyone explain to me what the hell it...is? Because I'm here to tell you, just reading the title doesn't help me out at all. I do however like the concept of a "Victorian Kitchen Phone". Guess Alex Bell was cranking them things out left and right from the get-go, eh?

I think maybe I'll just hit up the thrift stores...

Well...Hell

If only I had seen this ad before I applied for my MLIS program...