Waiting to start the run

This is the before picture of Arnold and me waiting on the bus at 7 a.m. There was an extremely peppy lady (I think her runner's high kicked in well before the start of the race) sitting on the bus in front of us so we asked her to snap our picture.

Off to Grandma's house

The cameraphone is ready

How did people exist in this world without all this cool stuff? What did they do with their time? Read books and talk to each other?

It was too quiet

Two bathroom rules come to mind. No climbing up on the counter and no accessing dental floss on your own because we know there won't be any left for the next person.

Back in business

Alrighty then. My Mac account is functioning. True, they had to delete everything in order to fix it, but fixed it is and they added on 100MB more storage space for the year. My new test page.

Speaking of dogs

This is Penny. She looks like she could use a good home. I'm not as concerned about the fact that it looks like Spidey wants a pug as I am thrilled that he has decided that drawing is a worthwhile activity.



This is entitled Sledding Ostriches.

Doggy contemplation

I don't think the younger of the two Bickerson children would make the ideal pet owner yet but I've been thinking about adding a dog or two to the family mix. 14+years with Bucket and 12 with Ed gave was a long, good time. It's only been two and a half years that we've been a doggy-free family and I don't want it to stay that way much longer. As nice as it would be to get the "perfect" puppy somewhere, there are way too many guys like these needing homes. But I think we need to wait a bit longer to make sure Tikka won't terrorize the adoptee.

Best term of the day

Cyber sherpa
From Hugh Hewitt:

Trying to figure out a short definition of what a blog is, I have instead decided to answer that question by telling interviewers and audiences what bloggers do. A blogger is a "cyber sherpa," and when I used it on CNN I think it was instantly understood --at least by folks who know that sherpauide people up the big mountains. We are living with a new avalanche of information every day, and the bloggers are the guides for the people who trust them, no matter what their area of expertise. It is that simple, though the ramifications are tremendous...

Brush with blog fame

The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers (MOB) get-together at Keegan's Pub in Minneapolis was interesting. I was lucky that two famous bloggers were willing to have photos snapped with yours truly.

James Lileks from lileks.com:



Scott Johnson from powerlineblog.com:



Our babysitter only had to call us once and it was to ask which toothbrush belonged to whom. The daughter was trying to convince the rookie babysitter that the Spiderman one was hers.

Baby, it's cold outside

Finally some real snow. I sent Tikka and Spidey outside to play. It took 20 minutes to get all the gear on to play outside for 6 minutes.

She's banging on the window saying, "Let me in. I want to move to Florida with Dad."


They look a little peeved at me, don't they? I know what they're thinking: If playing in the snow is so much fun, why the hell aren't you out here with us?


Spidey helps extract his sister from her boots:


Mr. Snowman keeps watch over the kids while they sleep:

Music education

Wednesday night is one of the best nights of the week thanks to a choir with a demanding director, two solid hours of singing, interesting repertoire, hard stuff and easy, new and old. I think those two hours each week are the reason I haven't signed myself up for intensive psychotherapy (yet).

So I want my kids to have some positive music experiences in school and church choirs. One of the elementary school concerts that I remember was when I was in 5th grade. Four elementary schools combined the 5th and 6th graders to sing a variety of compositions, one of which was this. Come back here when you are done laughing.

Can you believe a music teacher would choose that song for a concert? Believe it, baby.

This one is worse. Now imagine this grizzled Kris Kristofferson song being sung by a group of about ten 6th graders during the offertory at church. How sweet and church-like is that? What the hell did the congregation think? "You know, now that I've heard that song sung by 6th graders, Johnny Cash just doesn't do it justice any more."

Lunchtime

Welcome back, little friend. We were starting to worry about you.

To do list

1. Plan for naps. Our day started at 4:50 a.m.
2. Clean bathrooms. Assign chores: Spidey/mirrors; Tikka/vacuum. Switch and repeat.
3. Start and finish continuing ed. paperwork.
4. Remove size 3T clothes from Spidey's room.
5. Do 4Q Quickbooks and payroll.
6. Laundry. Gigantic piles of laundry.
7. Celebrate completion of the above with something caffeiney and whip-creamy.

Prototype

Have I told you that Mr. Bickerson has an artistic side? He usually hides it from the rest of the world but he called upon his recycled cardboard skills this afternoon to help Spidey with a dinosaur project.

Thankful for little things

Joy of joys, I just checked the schedule for running tomorrow and it's 13 miles not 14! I will so very much appreciate not running that extra, unnecessary mile.

A peaceful afternoon moment

Here we are watching Dora the Explorer. Me sitting on the couch with laptop; Spidey snuggled next to me and holding his sister's feet which are in his lap. Sigh. I predict this will last two more minutes (max) before somebody either pinches or kicks someone.

'Till next year, Christmas Cowboy Bear

Pretty but...

We should bake cookies every morning. These are extra beautiful because we made the frosting with three parts powdered sugar/milk/vanilla to one part toddler saliva.

Choristers should not split wood

Holding the Handel Messiah score during choir rehearsal one day after splitting two hunks of hardwood with a new axe from Sears is surprisingly painful. Or I am a wimp. Cold weather is officially coming to town tomorrow so we/I decided to split some wood for our fireplace and give it a dress rehearsal last night. Mr. Bickerson was very tired from a long day spent staring at a computer screen and thinking about a certain breakfast product making its trip safely to an unspecified location and so wood-splitting duties were assumed by me. I won't do it again. Next time I'll just ask someone to beat my hands with a sledgehammer.

Oh, Christmas Tree

We put our tree up later than some so we get to enjoy it for a week or three after Christmas. I always feel sad when I see those trees out on the curb on the 27th. We decided to take ours down yesterday. You'd think someone told her that Santa Clause died. Oh, the tears and the sobbing. I tried to put a positive spin on it: "Here's the deal: We HAVE to take the tree down so that we can put a NEW one up next year! See? It will be great!" She was not having it.

One convenient distraction technique I've discovered is to ask her to help me clean the house. (What are the chances that that will still work when she is, say, 15 and actually capable of cleaning?) She helped me vacuum the needles and calmed down. One of the bigger pieces wouldn't be sucked up by the vacuum so Tikka decided that we should reunite it with "his brother" outside. We took the little branch out to the curb and put it with the big tree.

Is that kind of weird empathy genetic? I have very clear memories of helping my mom make macaroni and cheese and if any of the noodles were stuck to the lid of the cardboard box, I was determined to release them and put them in the boiling water so they could be with their friends. I remember thinking, If you noodles are going to die in a pot of boiling water, you're all going to go down TOGETHER!