I forgot to tell you

Her guitar pick is a plastic potato chip from her play kitchen. Ruffles with ridges, actually.

Greg Louganis and a new Deltone?

Can you see my caterpillar?

Ah, 21st century living. Want your preschool classmate, who now lives in Sweden, to see the caterpillar you and your brother captured? Give her a ring on Skype and show it to her.

Hopscotch on Memorial Day

Toddler news story of the day

"She summarily picked the child up and boogied"

This story could have been about me. How could anyone stand there and look at the design and not have an irrepressible urge to mix it all up?

Definition of a bad day?

You're the elementary school IT guy. You pull into the school parking lot ready to start your day and you park your car in the only space left -- the one next to the Geek Squad car, which turns out has been at the school already for an hour.

Take note, Mr. Bickerson

Jackie Greene the next Bob Dylan

In my opinion it's worth staying home from Ragbrai to see this guy. But I have been overruled.

Sabbatical?

Oh my, I am having fun messing around with Photoshop Elements. Do you think my family would let me go on sabbatical for the summer so I could focus on photo doctoring 24 hours a day? I bet I could find a cabin somewhere with an electrical outlet...

Photoshop Elements

She's a Led Zeppelin fan

We went to see Shrek the Third today and we're all in agreement that it was money well spent. We don't go to new releases very much any more but it was a matinee and it was raining so we went. We all enjoyed ourselves and recommend the movie to all of you. There's something in it for everyone including Led Zeppelin music which Hope has been stomping around the house singing. She has been vocalizing the first four notes (the Ah ah ahhh -- AH part) of the melody of Immigrant Song. When Robert Plant calls it quits (hasn't he already?) Hope will be ready.

Hanson family trivia

Both Hank and his dad can touch their noses with their tongues. Hope and I cannot.

Protégée and Workin' for a livin'

$0.05 per pile?

I accept the offer!

1st grade thespian

Hank played the role of one of the guards in his class's version of The Emporer's New Clothes.

Hope's view from the jogger: 2

Hope's view from the jogger: 2
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Bickerson.

It's not all downhill.

Hope's view from the jogger: 1

Hope's view from the jogger: 1
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Bickerson.

She doesn't complain too much.

I would start the paper again

if they delivered news like this

Oprah and Me

We're bunion sisters!

The best bleat in a long time

Back to the room, then to the pool. I walked back to the main commercial area to get a beer for my wife and a drink for me. The beer was $4.75, and came in a plastic cup, which meant that every time I spilled a drop I could see a dime sloshing onto the pavement. Well, get used to it: this is one magnificent dollar-extraction machine, and even though we’re on some sort of plan, I feel as though twenty-dollar bills are flowing out of my account every time I take a breath.

But you'll never see more porto-pots at a marathon start than you'll see at the Disney Marathon. Gleaming biffs as far as the eye could see! You'll never throw away more money. We ate in Epcot's Morocco. The restaurant had six people in it at 2 p.m. on a Friday. Gary begged me not to make eye contact with the lunchtime belly dancer for fear we would have to give her a $20.

Mother's Day

We went to Iowa and had a really great time visiting relatives. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Steve live next to a pasture containing one horse and one goat. If you ever have the opportunity, do not grab the electric fence like I did. It doesn't exactly hurt but it doesn't feel good AT ALL. Hank went to school yesterday and told the class during Sharing Time that his mother got electrocuted on Mother's Day. His teacher used that opportunity to teach a little vocabulary so now the students understand the difference between electrocuted and shocked.

Mother's Day might be the best holiday of the year

A preschool cookbook from Hope's class:

A paragraph diagram from Hank:

This is so cool

Flight patterns

She's thinking about starting a blog

Music tonight

Ohhh. Are you listening online? It is awesome. I'm having musical flashbacks:

Minnesota Public Radio

Click the green classical button.

Reason 478 Why the Internets are Great

I was emailed recently by an elementary school friend -- long lost. He found me by searching my college alumni website. Hank's in first grade now and although I can't remember my first grade teacher's name I have fond memories of my classmate, the author of this blog: Stranded in Iowa.

Was I ever as little as Hank or Hope? Was there ever a time when my only worries were walking to and from school every day, with the occasional multiplication tables homework sheet? And deciding whose yard we would play after school each day?

Tag-a-long

Thanks to Mr. Bickerson's frequent craigslist checking we are now in possession of a cheapo tag-a-long bike. Now we can all go for a ride with Hope sitting on the tag-a-long behind one of us. Gary gave almost every kid in the neighborhood a ride around the block yesterday afternoon. When he pooped out our neighbor took over, taking each kid around and around. He explained to the kids how by working together with two people on one bike, the peddling feels easier. So they all did their part, some more than others.

Peggy's runs have to wait until afternoons now that I'm working a few hours a week. So after I picked Hope up at preschool today I bribed her to sit in the jogger while we ran with Peggy and then we would go for a bike ride.

I'm not in condition to push the jogger anymore especially with a 45 pound preschooler sitting in it. I told her I was tired after the run but I held to my promise to take her for a bike ride.

She peddled like mad behind me for the approximately 5 mile ride, the whole back end wiggling side to side. I coasted on every slight decline and I could hear Hope peddling fast and huffing and puffing a little.

Finally, apparently exasperated with my coasting, she shouted, "MOM, I KNOW YOU'RE TIRED BUT YOU GOTTA HELP ME PEDDLE A LITTLE!"

Search hit of the week

what kind of stomach virus is going around here april 2007

Welcome! (And I hope you are feeling better but I am 98% sure my blog did not make you sick. We wash our hands a lot around here.)

Oooo, pretty

Cloud Cult: Pretty Voices

The scene begins
With our next melody
Sung by a bashful bird
Humming a violet sky
There are no words
But there is understanding
It's been so long
Since I've heard that pretty voice

Raise up our lights
And enter hero girl
She makes me calm
Yeah she makes me calm
When she hears a song
And she starts singing
It's been so long
Since I've heard that pretty voice

Strike up the band
Here comes the storyline
Of the usual struggle
Between fear and love
This is the lifelong song
We're all singing
It's been so long
Since I've heard that pretty voice

When it begins
I miss your harmony
But you're so shy
Such a bashful bird
Here's a song
But no one's singing
It's been so long
Since I've heard your pretty voice

Guess what, dawg

Blake's da BOMB!

Peggy is a good listener

She's a fetcher and a runner.

For the record, I don't know what that sound is at the end of the clip but I do know it's not what you might think it is.

Why I worry

Hank: "Mom, what does 'go with your gut' mean?"

Me: "I think it means do what your heart tells you is the right thing to do."

Hank: "In that case, I think he's probably going to cheat."

"...Workin' for a livin'....WORKIN'..."

I decided seven years of sitting on the couch, eating bon bons and lusting after male soap opera stars and Regis is enough. I was rusting away (...rustedy rust rust....dustedy dust dust to quote from my favorite children's books). I have a little contract for some work via Gar-Co. We are a diverse company, now offering data warehouse technology expertise AND speech pathology assessments and treatment. The president of Gar-Co has kindly promoted me to the postition of senior assistant. He's the best boss I've ever worked for.

May Day Basket Delivery Disguise

Who was that masked man?

Wait. It's way too hot for the mask.

Hope's thoughts on immersion school

Well, see first I'm gonna hate it because it's gonna be confusing and I won't know what the teacher said, and then it's gonna be great and fun and then I'm gonna know what the Chinese words are.

24

24: The Musical?

I think they could easily liven up the show by taking Audrey to House (or bringing House to Audrey) to identify the cause of her catatonia.

(Which we all know is COMPLETE AND TOTAL BOREDOM WITH THE SERIES THIS SEASON.)