From SBRG

One of my current projects is the Spina Bifida Resource Guide. I am putting all the health-related inspirational stories that I would normally post here, over there.

It would be great if you would add the site to your daily reading list. The more people who visit, the more likely it is that parents looking for a central source of SB information will find it.

Just to make sure you don't miss the good stuff though, I will link it up here from time to time:

It's Camp - like you have never seen before (scroll down to the video)

I was so encouraged to read this story about a woman with SB. Check it out.

Breath Taking

There was a great article in a recent copy of Runner's Magazine entitled Breath Taking.

Teaser:

Four days, 42 miles, 8,000 feet of climbing, six seasoned guides, 300-count sheets, and one really clutch hot tub.

I have to admit, that it is one of my dreams to take a running vacation like this. Spending the night in a great Inn, getting up each morning and running to the next one. Seriously great fun.

Of course, the last time I went for a run was about 5 months ago.

It's sort of discouraging. I would love to get out in the cool morning air with the dawg by my side but I just can't seem to find the time. I am up at 4 am everyday, work on paperwork, keep up with the e-mails and projects etc. and then in the office by 8am. Home by 6pm and then it is family time.

I just don't see how I could squeeze in the 1 1/2 to 2 hours it takes to get back to running. Oh, sure, I could cut some things here and there but when I consider the projects I am working on, I am not willing to cut back on any of them to make room for heel-toeing it every other morning. So there it is.

I imagine one day I will get back to it and I hope that day is not far off - but for now, it's not even on the calendar. Such is life and the choices that come with it.

Now,let me tell you about my dream to become a classical guitarist . . . .

The Waiting

by Stephen Dunn

I waited for you calmly, with infinite patience.
I waited for you hungrily, just short of desperate.

When you came I knew that desperate was unattractive.
I was calm, no one wants the kind of calm I was.

It tried your patience, it made you hungry for a man
who was hungry. I am that man, I said,

but I said it calmly. My body was an ache, a silence.
It could not affirm how long it had waited for you.

It could not claw or insist or extend its hands.
It was just a stupid body, closed up and voracious.

By The Book - proceeds to benefit ACF

Quote of the Day

In the morning the snow is knee-deep and the temperature has dropped below zero. On Moose Country Radio, the gap between George Jones and Loretta Lynn songs grows wider as the announcer recites an expanding list of postponements and cancellations. School has been shut down. Several basketball games have been rescheduled. Over at the turkey factory in Barron, the evisceration team is starting two hours late. Outside, the morning is filled with the sound of snow blowers and the flat scrape, scrape of snow shovels. As we dig out, we greet one another with mittened waves and puffs of breath, cheerful as kids playing hooky. We lean to our shovels with stoic determination, secretly delighted that in the age of heated seats and convenience-store cappuccino we can still pretend to be pioneers as we strike out for milk and eggs up the block at the Gas-N-Go. The air is sharp with cold. With every inhalation, our nose hairs snap together like magnets and freeze. they thaw and separate on the exhale. We tromp around in our big boots, imagining we survive on pemmican and hardtack. The illusion doesn't last. the plows are out, and by mid morning the four-lane is whooshing with people who dared not risk the deadly trip to work or school, but now, given a day off, will drive forty miles to the mall.

- from Truck, a Love Story

By The Book - proceeds to benefit ACF

73 Years Ago Today

Gone with the Wind published

Margaret Mitchell's Gone wih the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, is published on this day in 1936.
In 1926, Mitchell was forced to quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal to recover from a series of physical injuries. With too much time on her hands, Mitchell soon grew restless. Working on a Remington typewriter, a gift from her second husband, John R. Marsh, in their cramped one-bedroom apartment, Mitchell began telling the story of an Atlanta belle named Pansy O'Hara.

Truck, A Love Story

It is rare that I read a book by an author who is new to me and finish wanting more. I found this to be a great book and highly recommend it to just about everyone. If you like stories about:

- Working on classic cars / trucks

- Trying to grow your own food

- Cooking

- Falling in love

- Small town life

this may be a good read for you as well.

On a related note: I am hard on my books. I thoroughly believe in marking it up, highlighting or bracketing passages that stand out, dog-earing pages etc.

Whenever I get a hand-me-down book I am always disappointed when every page is pristine, the binding not even cracked. I wonder to myself, "Did this person even read this book?"

I would much rather receive a tattered and worn, marked up book from a friend. Where did they stop reading each day? What passages interested them? Receiving a beat-up book is like receiving a book and book-club all in one.

All that to say, when I look at my copy of "Truck" I realize I have marked and dog-eared a passage about every ten pages or so. The way he writes is just so beautiful.

I would love to post every single passage that stuck out to me but I fear that may cross the line from recommending a book to giving it away for free online. So I am going to do my best to share the best of the highlights over the next couple weeks in an effort to get you to pick up the dang book.

By The Book - proceeds to benefit ACF

Pabst, The World's Ugliest Dawg

I actually don't think he's that bad . . .

LINK HERE

Challenger Field

A seriously great story

Military Humor

Seriously funny Military Humor. Seriously.

Teeth!

Morning Person

by Brian Andres

I wouldn't mind

being grownup,

she told me, if I

didn't have to

get up & be

grumpy

right away every

morning.

Quote of the Day

The future seemed glum. He had been told that he could not go back to Cambridge for the autumn term. Nevertheless, he was wonderfully brave and cheerful. He told me that the doctors had told him not to smoke, but that he was not going to obey them. "If I did, I know that I should be unbearably bad-tempered. What an infliction on my friends. Better to die cheerfully with the aid of a little tobacco, than to live disagreeably and remorseful without."

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

Tamandra Michaels

So let me get this straight, she is an artist, a photographer, she loves dawgs and she was born with Spina Bifida . . . . if only we had something in common . . . .

Check out her website

Drop a couple bucks if you got 'em.

Blue or Green?

Well now, that's just wierd

4th of July Movie #19-29

Ken Burns Jazz Documentary



Seriously, if you like Ragtime, the Blues, Jazz and especially Louis Armstrong, this is a must see!

Quote of the Day

Jack asked me to stay behind for a minute after his other guests had gone. He had asked Joy to stay at the Kilns, and he wanted my advice. Should he and Warren behave in their usual holiday fashion, walking, drinking beer, and eating bread and cheese in pubs? Or should they try to be more conventional hosts? I said they should do as they usually did on holiday, and later I heard from Warren that the visit was a great success. "We treated her just as if she were a man. She loved the pubs, walked fairly well considering she was not used to it, drank her pints of beer and often made us laugh."

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

What Goes On

by Stephen Dunn

After the affair and the moving out,
after the destructive revivifying passion,
we watched her life quiet

into a new one, her lover more and more
on its periphery. She spent many nights
alone, happy for the narcosis

of the television. When she got cancer
she kept it to herself until she couldn't
keep it from anyone. The chemo debilitated
and saved her, and one day

her husband asked her to come back —
his wife, who after all had only fallen
in love as anyone might
who hadn't been in love in a while —

and he held her, so different now,
so thin, her hair just partially
grown back. He held her like a new woman

and what she felt
felt almost as good as love had,
and each of them called it love
because precision didn't matter anymore.

And we who'd been part of it,
often rejoicing with one
and consoling the other,

we who had seen her truly alive
and then merely alive,
what could we do but revise
our phone book, our hearts,

offer a little toast to what goes on.

180 Years Ago Today

Smithson's curious bequest

In Genoa, Italy, English scientist James Smithson dies after a long illness, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to "the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Smithson's curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

See? Told you so . . .

Another great post

4th of July Movie #18

Okay, so I don't know what is wrong with my computer now but when I try to access You-tube videos I get an error message saying "Invalid Arguement" which, c'mon, I suppose is mostly true with me but still . . . can't you just play the video????

So here's hoping you can see what I can't:

The Sandlot

Seriously one of the best movies ever made - and it has a great 4th of July scene including Ray Charles' fantastic rendition of America the Beautiful.

Fighting Chance

By Brian Andres

What do I get for

this? I said & the

angel gave me a

catalog filled with

toasters & clock radios

& a basketball signed

by Michael Jordan &

I said, But this is

just stuff & the angel

smiled and swallowed

me in her arms.

I'm so glad you

said that, she

whispered to me.

I knew you still

had a chance.

Quote of the Day

The route would be determined by the need to arrive between 12:30 and 1:30 at a pub that we both liked. Fortunately we had much the same taste, a taste that I am sure Arthur Greeves also shared. The pub had to be small, simple, old, and preferably in the black-and-white style. It must serve what would now be called "real ale," that is, bitter beer drawn from wooden casks, not ale pasteurized and stored under pressure in metal drums as is now common in England. Jack and his brother would not drink this latter kind, and both disliked bottled, and even more, canned beer. The interior of the pub could not be "tarted up"; the furniture had to be traditional with wooden tops to the tables, preferably polished with wax. If it were at all cold, a coal or wood fire burned in the grate. If there was music, such as a switched-on radio, Jack would want to leave. Fortunately television, jukeboxes, and fruit machines were menaces not to be found in the country pubs of those days. With our pints of beer we ate our sandwiches. then Jack smoked a cigarette and often had a second pint of beer.

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

16 Years Ago Today

Clinton punishes Iraq for plot to kill Bush

In retaliation for an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush during his April visit to Kuwait, President Bill Clinton orders U.S. warships to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in downtown Baghdad.

Peg Board Art

A short film using nothing but a peg board and letters - the ending is the best part!



HT: Neatorama

4th of July Movies #10-17

Ric Burns: New York Documentary Series

First of all, both Ken & Ric Burns pretty much rock! The wife and I have watched all 8 discs of this series TWICE! And I would totally watch them again.

The series documents the history of New York starting from it's original founding as a dutch trading outpost all the way through 9/11. If you ever plan on visiting Manhattan, this is required viewing my friends.

For instance, did you know that in the early days the settlers had to build a wall East to West across Manhattan as a defence against the Indians? The road that ran along that fence was and is still known as Wall Street.

Did you also know that George Washington lived in New York while he was President? That the church he attended is still in operation? That the Stock Exchange started as a group of people trading cattle under a particular tree?

It is a great American story of how a small backwater settlement became the unofficial capital of the world.

I wasn't able to find a trailer online but you can get the series on netflix.

Quote of the Day

He never bought a newspaper. There were better things with which to occupy the mind. "You don't need to read the news. If anything important happens, far too many people are sure to tell you about it."

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

You Be The Judge

Physical Therapy or WBWF (World Baby-Wrestling Federation)?

The Last Hours

by Stephen Dunn

There's some innocence left,
and these are the last hours of an empty afternoon
at the office, and there's the clock
on the wall, and my friend Frank
in the adjacent cubicle selling himself
on the phone.

I'm twenty-five, on the shaky
ladder up, my father's son, corporate,
clean-shaven, and I know only what I don't want,
which is almost everything I have.

A meeting ends.
Men in serious suits, intelligent men
who've been thinking hard about marketing snacks,
move back now to their window offices, worried
or proud. The big boss, Horace,
had called them in to approve this, reject that --
the big boss, a first-name, how's-your-family
kind of assassin, who likes me.

It's 1964.
The sixties haven't begun yet. Cuba is a larger name
than Vietnam. The Soviets are behind
everything that could be wrong. Where I sit
it's exactly nineteen minutes to five. My phone rings.
Horace would like me to stop in
before I leave. Stop in. Code words,
leisurely words, that mean now.

Would I be willing
to take on this? Would X's office, who by the way
is no longer with us, be satisfactory?
About money, will this be enough?
I smile, I say yes and yes and yes,
but -- I don't know from what calm place
this comes -- I'm translating
his beneficence into a lifetime, a life
of selling snacks, talking snack strategy,
thinking snack thoughts.

On the elevator down
it's a small knot, I'd like to say, of joy.
That's how I tell it now, here in the future,
the fear long gone.

By the time I reach the subway it's grown,
it's outsized, an attitude finally come round,
and I say it quietly to myself, I quit,
and keep saying it, knowing I will say it, sure
of nothing else but.

4th of July Movie #9

Yankee Doodle Dandy



Submit your recommendations in the comments or e-mail them to matthew.m.linden@gmail.com

Little Blue Lamb

Quote of the Day

The Narnia stories reveal more about Jack's personal religion than any of his theological books, because he wrote them more from the heart than from the head. The character of Aslan is his supreme achievement, the apex, as Paul Ford puts it, "of his literary, mythopoeic, and apologetic gifts." Bede Griffiths has eloquently expressed this point: "The figure of Aslan tell us more of how Lewis understood the nature of God than anything else he wrote. It has all the hidden power and majesty and awesomeness which Lewis associated with God, but also all the glory and the tenderness and even the humor which he believed belonged to him, so that children could run up to him and throw their arms around him and kiss him. There is nothing of 'dark imagination' or fear of devils and hell in this. It is 'mere Christianity.'"

No wonder that my little stepdaughter, after she had read all the Narnia stories, cried bitterly, saying, "I don't want to go on living in this world. I want to live in Narnia - with Aslan."

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

A Psalm of Life

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Family of Four

See, now. That's just good writing.

If you are a parent, you don't want to miss it - especially if you are a parent of two or more . . . .

I'm Just a Country Girl at Heart

4th of July Movies #2-8

John Adams



Submit your recommendations in the comments or e-mail them to matthew.m.linden@gmail.com

Quote of the Day

Broadcast live from the London studio of the BBC and billed in the Radio Times as, "Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe?," they were a great success. His rich voice, educated yet earthy, came across perfectly. The extraordinary vitality that was characteristic of his best Oxford lectures made an unforgettable impression on almost everyone who listened, Christians and unbelievers alike.

I remember being at a pub filled with soldiers on one Wednesday evening. At a quarter to eight, the bartender turned the radio up for Lewis, "You listen to this bloke," he shouted. "He's really worth listening to." And those soldiers did listen attentively for the entire fifteen minutes.

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

4th of July Movies

So now that father's day is past, time to cue up 4th of July movies!

First up, The Patriot



Submit your recommendations in the comments or e-mail them to matthew.m.linden@gmail.com

Fundamentals

by Brian Andres

How'd it go at soccer?

I said & he said we worked

on fundamentals & I said

like why you were even

chasing around after a

ball in the first place?

& from the way he

looked at me I

figured out that

was probably

too fundamental.

I Am A Dad: I Am Here to Help . . .

So little Annie is teething. She has one tooth bottom, center that is visible and the one next to it is trying to break through. Anna-ba-lu is less than thrilled.

All this is compounded by the fact that Annie seems to have an aversion to having strange objects put in her mouth. When you give her a new toy, she usually spends quite a bit of time exploring it with her hands before jamming it in her mouth.

So when we try and give her teething rings, frozen washcloths etc, she just won't have it.

She spits teething tabs out and the numbness from baby oragel seems to upset her as much as the teething does. I have checked the owner's manual and the Internet for answers but nothing seems to be working. Lately I have been googling "For the love of all that is holy and good on God's green earth, how much longer is this going to last?" with mixed results.

Last night Annie was having a particularly rough go of it and all three of us were on edge as a result. The wife was comforting her in the nursing chair.

Me: Do you want me to dose her with baby Tylenol before she goes to bed?

Wife: Yeah, that's a good idea

Me: Turn her head

I filled the eye dropper and the wife pointed the wee-one's face to the ceiling. As soon as I got the eye dropper in Bella's mouth and started to dispense the thick purple goo, Annie jerked her face away causing me to squeeze some of the goo on her cheek while she simultaneously spit out what did make it in all over the wife.

The battle was joined.

I pulled her face back around and tried to get a second shot at it but Annie had clamped her lips shut and shook her head side to side causing me to spread the remainder of the Tylenol syrup all over her face.

The wife shot me a look that said, "Get it IN her face, not ON her face!"

I shot the wife a look that said, "I thought you were going to hold her STILL!"

I scrambled to the changing table, grabbed a washcloth and dipped it in a bowl of water.

"Not THAT!" The wife snapped - "that's for changing diapers!"

Beginning to bump up against the edges of my limited patience, I threw the wet washcloth in the trash, grabbed another and headed to the bathroom sink.

The wife toweled the little one off.

Me: Anything else? (meaning, "may I be excused?")

Wife: No (meaning, "I think you have done enough damage for now")

I headed for the couch, a book and a beer (not in that order).

Once the appropriate amount of time had passed, I crept back to the nursery.

Me: Hows she doin?

Wife: She's almost asleep

Me: Do you need anything?

Wife: No, we're fine

Me: If you want, I can squirt Tylenol all over her face again . . .

Wife: =spent the rest of the evening laughing about it all=

I am a Dad: I am here to help.

Quote of the Day

"When I race my mind is full of doubts - who will finish second, who will finish third?"

- Noureddine Morceli, Olympic Runner

Seriousness

By Stephen Dunn

Driving the Golden State Parkway to New York, I pointed out two crows to a woman who believed crows always travel in threes. And later just one crow eating the carcass of a squirrel. "The others are nearby," she said, "hidden in the trees." She was sure. Now and then she'd say "See!" and a clear dark trinity of crows would be standing on the grass. I told her she was wrong to under - or overestimate crows, and wondered out loud if three crows together made any evolutionary sense. I was almost getting serious now. Near Forked River, we saw five. "There's three," she said, "and two others with a friend in a tree." I looked to see if she was smiling. She wasn't. Or she was. "Men like you," she said, "need it written down, notarized, and signed."

The Trials and Tribulations of Being a Creative Parent

HT: Neatorama

Didn't We Just Order Post-Its??

From Neatorama:

Quote of the Day

"If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you."

- Muhammad Ali

FB

So. I have gotten involved with our local Spina Bifida group. The idea is to offer help and encouragement to other people in the Spina Bifida community.

At our most recent planning meeting, it was brought up that there are quite a few resources for parents of children with SB but not so much for teens and adults who actually have the condition. One of the requests was that we start a message board for teens and one for adults so that people can connect and share.

This I know nothing about.

I really enjoy the message board "Spina Bifida Kids" on Babycenter.com but I don't foresee too many teens typing in "babycenter" to get to a message board. So I put the word out that I was looking for a solution.

I received a number of suggestions - one of which was Facebook.

This, I also know nothing about.

I do have a Facebook page but I never go there. I even went so far as to turn off all the alerts because I just couldn't handle any more friend requests from people I never spoke to in my 7th grade homeroom . . . Seriously, you get a friend request from a name that sounds vaguely familiar, you log in and see a 30-something person with a spouse and kids of their own and you try and squint your eyes and morph the photo into a teenager wearing a Duran Duran button and a hat like the one Ducky wore in "Pretty in Pink".

I know, I AM A JERK.

Well, maybe it was time that FB and I make up . . . after all, it's for a worthy cause . . . so I logged on.

Now, those of you who love FB, please understand - this is more about my ineptitude than the actual FB - but I just can't make heads or tails of it.

I searched around for some gizmos (they are called "apps") that might spruce up my page and I came across a list of apps recommended by friends. One friend proclaimed himself a "fan" of an app featuring a roll of toilet paper . . . which, ummm . . . I guess there is only one response to that . . "Me too!"

I think I may have inadvertently linked my FB to my Twitter (which sounds like a euphemism for sticking your head up . . . well, you get the idea). If that is in fact what I did, now my FB page is the worst of all - a zombie page where my tweets are posted as if I am there when I am not and so people are replying to my comments in the same way you start talking to a voice mail message when you think it is an actual person. So, I'm sorry about all that. If I did that, I will try to un-do that.

Then I went to my inbox which was chock-full of people asking to be my friend, asking me to join the mafia, poking me, sending me virtual this-that-and-the-other . . . one friend sent me an app asking me to take a bada$$ quiz (I scored 16% - which sounds about right)

I figured the least I could do was clear out my inbox while I was there. So I started racing through the entries, Confirm - Confirm - Ignore - Confirm . . . and then I realized, not only do actual people request to be your friend, but the bots in the system recommend people who you might want to be friends with - sort of like a digital dating service.

I am waiting for the day when the computer suggests that I befriend myself ("You have 105 friends in common!") at which point I will immediately send myself an atomic poke (or whatever) - As it turns out, in my inept impatience to clear out the messages I had been sending out friend requests when I thought I was confirming them . . .

It wasn't long before I started getting messages saying "I thought we were already friends?" Which adds the one missing ingredient from the 80's time machine making the whole demoralizing experience complete - Teen angst.

Again. I am sorry.

Someone sent me an ad for an, how shall I say this? An alternative feminine product. Clearly this person was enthused and felt everyone in their address-book needed to know about this new breakthrough because I can't imagine they would have gone to the trouble to send it to me individually. So I hit "Ignore" - BUT WAIT? DID I?

OH %*&#$!,

I think I hit "Send to all" instead of "Ignore".

And that's when I realized I needed to just SHUT 'ER DOWN . . .

=cue the red and blue lights flashing across the barrel of an un-holstered Glock 9mm=

"Put your hands where I can see them! Step AWAY from the keyboard! Son, am I to understand you sent all your friends a girly-ad??"

"Yes . . . yes . . . officer. But it was an accident . . . ."

"Ummhumm . . . boy, do you have your Facebook up your Twitter or what?

"Actually, officer, I think I might."

"Ummhmm . . . I am going to need to see some identification . . ."

I expect the next time (if ever) I log onto FB my inbox will be full of "Sally Smith requests to NOT be your friend anymore" and who could blame her?

So, yet again, sorry.

So just to roundup:

- I think I zombie-fied my home page by jamming my Facebook up my Twitter

- If anyone out there received ANYTHING from me on FB of ANY SORT, I am sorry. I didn't poke you, prod you, toilet paper you or do lord knows what else to you

- I know nothing about feminine products so just go ahead and dis-regard that one too.

I am now resisting ordering my "FACEBOOK SUCKS" T-shirt. For one, when you google "Facebook Sucks T-shirt" you get exactly ZERO images. Which tells me that FB probably does not suck.

Which just leaves one other option.

I suck on Facebook.

T-shirts coming to a store near you . . .

UPDATE:

From Lileks this morning:

How did I live without this before? It’s called Evernote, and it’s . . . I’m not sure. It’s a bin for clips that lives up in the cloud, and can be accessed on any computer, either in a browser or a separate program. . . . I like the fact that it has absolutely no social-media integration whatsoever, because I’m getting a little tired of reading that this new can opener integrates with Facebook, somehow.

I’m still waiting for someone to invent anti-social media, like some form of Twitter where everyone blocks everyone else.

I’m also waiting for someone to tell me that I don’t need to have all my notes and clippings synced, and that I should also invest in whalebone corset stays.

Soul Food

After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, "Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak."

- Acts 13:15

Well Howdda Like That?

All this time I have been doing it wrong . . .

Quote of the Day

"In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first."

- Harry Truman

197 Years Ago Today

War of 1812 begins

The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law--and the War of 1812 begins. The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress known as the "War Hawks" had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial land gains for the United States.

A Peck of Gold

by Robert Frost

Dust always blowing about the town,
Except when sea-fog laid it down,
And I was one of the children told
Some of the blowing dust was gold.

All the dust the wind blew high
Appeared like god in the sunset sky,
But I was one of the children told
Some of the dust was really gold.

Such was life in the Golden Gate:
Gold dusted all we drank and ate,
And I was one of the children told,
'We all must eat our peck of gold.'

Derek Paravicini

Born premature, Derek Paravicini is blind, can't tell his right from his left, cannot count to 10 and is autistic.

Derek Paravicini plays the piano:

Follow the links for more video clips.

Quote of the Day

. . . when pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.

- CS Lewis in Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

Eeyore

Not only does Annabelle laugh all the time - she seems to actually enjoy laughing - the very act of laughing is fun to her.

Here she is playing with her Eeyore, or as I like to call him, "250".

UPDATE:

The wife has pointed out that this is Horton - not Eeyore.

ME (grasping at straws): "How am I supposed to tell the difference? They are both grey"

WIFE: "Horton is a grey elephant - Eeyore is a blue donkey-thing"

ME: "Eeyore is blue?"

124 Years Ago Today

Statue of Liberty arrives

The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, arrives in New York City's harbor.

Originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World," the statue was proposed by French historian Edouard Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the 151-foot statue was the form of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch. In February 1877, Congress approved the use of a site on New York Bedloe's Island, which was suggested by Bartholdi. In May 1884, the statue was completed in France, and three months later the Americans laid the cornerstone for its pedestal in New York. On June 19, 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty arrived in the New World, enclosed in more than 200 packing cases. Its copper sheets were reassembled, and the last rivet of the monument was fitted on October 28, 1886, during a dedication presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

234 Years Ago Today

The Battle of Bunker Hill

During the American Revolution, British General William Howe lands his troops on the Charlestown peninsula overlooking Boston and leads them against Breed's Hill, a fortified American position just below Bunker Hill. As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, Patriot General William Prescott reportedly told his men, "Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" When the Redcoats were within 40 yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, cutting down nearly 100 enemy troops and throwing the British into retreat. After reforming his lines, Howe attacked again, with much the same result. However, Prescott's men were now low on ammunition, and when Howe led his men up the hill for a third time, they reached the redoubts and engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand combat. The outnumbered Americans were forced to retreat.

Bad Mother

I saw this post which led me to check out the book on Amazon . . .

Teaser:

In our mothers’ day there were good mothers, neglectful mothers, and occasionally great mothers.

Today we have only Bad Mothers.

If you work, you’re neglectful; if you stay home, you’re smothering. If you discipline, you’re buying them a spot on the shrink’s couch; if you let them run wild, they will be into drugs by seventh grade. If you buy organic, you’re spending their college fund; if you don’t, you’re risking all sorts of allergies and illnesses.

Is it any wonder so many women refer to themselves at one time or another as “a bad mother”? Ayelet Waldman says it’s time for women to get over it and get on with it, in a book that is sure to spark the same level of controversy as her now legendary “Modern Love” piece, in which she confessed to loving her husband more than her children.

Covering topics as diverse as the hysteria of competitive parenting (Whose toddler can recite the planets in order from the sun?), the relentless pursuits of the Bad Mother police, balancing the work-family dynamic, and the bane of every mother’s existence (homework, that is), Bad Mother illuminates the anxieties that riddle motherhood today, while providing women with the encouragement they need to give themselves a break.

Interesting stuff . . . if you're mother, that is. To us dad's, any day in which we avoid a trip to the Emergency room with our little ones is an unmitigated sucess story . . .

Quote of the Day

Hell is something we are free to inflict on ourselves, if we insist and if we utterly reject God's wish to have us with him. Hell is the logical end of the freedom that God has given to man, the freedom to reject him. Thus, if Hell has any inhabitants, they are self-enslaved.

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

College Dorm Room Antics

Follow the links for more videos

Yeah, Right

In 10 years time, this same little girl playing with the life-like snake will be SHRIEKING my name because she thought she saw a bug in her room.

"I thinks it's over there, Daddy! Kill it! Kill it! KIIIIIILLLLLL IIIIIIIIITTTTTT!"

Rights

What if we had the right only to sound opinions? Ah, who's to judge? say the hoi polloi. The teacher in the classroom, perhaps. The expert in the machine shop. Some lifer with a record of fairness and the severity that comes out of long caring. If we didn't make sense, we'd lose our right to another opinion for, maybe, an hour. And never could we say, "Well, that's just my opinion," or "One opinion is as good as another," without losing a few day's rights. Could more generosity be expected in the face of the shameless? If we'd said something very stupid, well then we would have to do some work in the community, say with the mentally impaired. After all, having a sound opinion is merely a minor achievement, just the beginning of good thinking. It's the least we should expect of ourselves.

- Stephen Dunn in What Goes On

Snake

One of the boys at TKA loaned Annie a snake. She loves it. It is rubber (hopefully not latex) and filled with little beads. It is funny to watch people's reactions; "What a pretty little girl you have there . . . Is. That. A. Snake?" And they looked at her confused.

"She has three brothers" we reply. Now they are looking at the wife and I, confused . . .

Incidentally, one of her "brothers" "popped the question" the other day. Little Riley Kessler. I believe it is the first time Annie has been asked for her hand in marriage. A cute little girl who loves snakes? Why wouldn't a little boy want to spend the rest of his life with her?

The little runt didn't have the nerve to ask my permission first though . . . I am going to have to work with Annabelle on that one . . .

Quote of the Day

He wrote Screwtape Letters quickly, completing one letter in just a few hours each week. In February 1941, after all thirty-one letters had been written, he sent them to The Guardian, a Church of England weekly and the only paper to which he subscribed, because its editor had already agreed to publish his essay "Dangers of National Repentance". The letters came out weekly from the beginning of May until the end of November 1941, and The Guardian, not a rich paper, paid him about $1,500 for the whole lot. Jack instructed the editor to send the money to a charity for the widows of Church of England clergymen. He had resolved, I think, even before the publication of The Pilgrim's Regress, to give to charity the money he received from the writing of religious books, and he kept to this undertaking even at times when he was short of money, as during the early years of the war.

- From Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

Tiger Face

by Stephen Dunn

Because you can be what you’re not
for only so long,
one day the tiger cub raised by goats

wandered to the lake and saw himself.
It was astounding
to have a face like that, cat-handsome,

hornless, and we can imagine he stared
a long time, then sipped
and pivoted, bemused yet burdened now

with choice. The mother goat had nursed him.
The others had tolerated
his silly quickness and claws.

And because once you know who you are
you need not rush,
and good parents are a blessing

whoever they are, he went back to them,
rubbing up against
their bony shins, keeping his secret to himself.

But after a while the tiger who’d found
his true face
felt the disturbing hungers, those desires

to get low in the reeds, swish his tail,
charge.
Because he was a cat he disappeared

without goodbyes, his goat-parents relieved
such a thing was gone.
And we can imagine how, alone and beyond

choice, he wholly became who he was—
that zebra or gazelle
stirring the great blood rush and odd calm

as he discovered, while moving, what needed
to be done

Grey the Owl

232 Years Ago Today

Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopts a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." The national flag, which became known as the "Stars and Stripes," was based on the "Grand Union" flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

Quote of the Day

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."

-- Mark Twain

Ummm . . .

Ummm . . .

No. Seriously.

Umm . . .

Aaaand, uh double-ummmm . . . .

I want one . . .

HT: Neatorama

Sippy Cup

ARS Poetica

By Stephen Dunn

I'd come to understand restraint

is worthless unless

something's about to spill or burst.

and that the Commandments

understand us perfectly, a large No

for the desirability of everything

vengeful, delicious, out of reach.

I wanted to write ten things

that contained as much.

Maybe from the beginning

the issue was how to live

in a world so extravagant

it had sky,

in bodies so breakable

we had to pray.

I welcomed, though,

our celestial freedom, our promiscuous flights

all returning to earth.

Yet what could awe us now?

The feeling dies

and then the word.

Restraint. Extravagance. I liked

how one could unshackle the other,

that they might become indivisible.

Astaire's restraint was a kind of extravagance,

While Ginger Rogers danced backwards

in high heels and continued to smile!

She had such grace it was unfair

we couldn't keep our eyes off him,

but the beautiful is always unfair.

I found myself imagining him

gone wild, gyrating, leaping,

his life suddenly uncontainable.

Oh, even as he thrashed,

I could tell he was feeling

for limits, and what he could bear.

Dads

Asylum.com has a great list of all-time pop-culture dad moments leading up to Father's Day.

Check out this one from the Cosby Show:

Quote of the Day

Probably Tillyard found he could accept Jack's statement of the value of poetry: " . . . [A]n utterance, besides entertaining, charming or exciting us for the moment, should have a desirable permanent effect on us if possible - should make us either happier, or wiser, or better . . . The only two question to ask about a poem, in the long run, are, firstly, whether it is interesting, enjoyable, attractive, and, secondly, whether this enjoyment wears well and helps or hinders you towards all the other things you would like to enjoy or do, or be."

- From Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

Medical Update

So yesterday was the long-awaited day. As I posted before, Annabelle's feet had some significant healing issues a few weeks back when they took her out of casts so she could be molded for AFO's.

We were both eager and apprehensive to have the casts removed for good and so was the Orthodist - yes, that's right - we now have a new medical discipline added to the mix - Orthodics.

The surgeon wanted us to just go to the orthodist where she would remove the casts, fit the AFO's and cast Annie for her soft body jacket. When the Orthodist called to say the AFO's were ready, I reminded her of our situation . . . after some brainstorming, head-butting and a few phone calls, we decided to meet up at the club foot clinic where the surgeon would remove the casts then examine and bandage the feet. The Orthodist would meet us there, fit the AFO's and then we would head to her office for the jacket casting.

It worked out well as we are always glad to see "Dr Doug" the surgeon and his assistant, Laura.

If full healing is a 10 and Annie's feet last time were a 0 - I would say that we are at about 4 1/2. Both the wife and I were relieved to see that there had been some good healing over the past few weeks. The doc showed us how to bandage up the wounds and instructed us to change out the bandages at least once a day.

Annie got fitted for her AFO's which are just about the cutest piece of medical equipment you would ever "want" your child to have. They remind me of wonder-women boots.

Since the casts were off and the bandages and boots on, I told the wife that I would head back to the office and let her handle the jacket-casting herself . . . . "Unless you feel strongly . . ." I added . . .

I went to the next appointment.

And glad I did.

If you recall, Annie has a curvature in her spine that is causing her to slump forward. This is a photo I took of the xray on the doc's computer screen.

For all sorts of reasons (some less obvious than others) it is important that we get Annie to sit up as straight as possible and the body jacket should help her do that.

First off, they placed a double layer of casting socks over Annie like a little dress . . . .

Then measurements . . .

Then more measurements . . . .

And more measurements . . .

Annie squealed in delight through the whole thing - I think she thought she was being measured for a tailor-made dress.

Then the not-so fun part - the casting. We tried fiberglass at first but it just didn't work - so the Ortho reverted to tried and true plaster. She made a casting of Annie's front and then we turned her over and made a casting of her back.

Little Annie had enough and began to go into full-on melt-down mode - there was nothing to be done but pin her arms and let her cry until the plaster was hard enough to remove . . . not fun . . .

We headed home and last night got to give Annabelle her first legit bath since the beginning of April.

It is so great to have her out of those heavy clunky casts. The wound care is difficult but we have been down that road before.

We go back to the surgeon in two weeks for a check-up on the wounds and a check on the AFO's. We will probably have Annie fitted with her new jacket then too.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Light Grey

This Day in History

67 Years Ago Today

Anne Frank receives a diary

On this day, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, receives a diary for her 13th birthday. A month later, she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in rooms behind her father's office. For two years, the Franks and four other families hid, fed and cared for by Gentile friends. The families were discovered by the Gestapo, which had been tipped off, in 1944. The Franks were taken to Auschwitz, where Anne's mother died. Friends in Amsterdam searched the rooms and found Anne's diary hidden away.

46 Years Ago Today

Medgar Evers assassinated

In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot to death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith.

Most people today have probably never heard of Medgar Evers. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that what makes this moment stand out to me is a movie I watched about 19 years ago: The Ghosts of Mississippi. The movie made an impression on me. Partly because I liked it and thought it was important, partly because my girlfriend at the time found it too disturbing to watch, and partly because my room mate said he would return the VHS rental, never did, and ended up having to pay over $100 in fines to Blockbuster . . . .

A Line-Storm Song

by Robert Frost

The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift.
The road is forlorn all day,
Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift,
And the hoof-prints vanish away.
The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee,
Expend their bloom in vain.
Come over the hills and far with me,
And be my love in the rain.

The birds have less to say for themselves
In the wood-world's torn despair
Than now these numberless years the elves,
Although they are no less there:
All song of the woods is crushed like some
Wild, earily shattered rose.
Come, be my love in the wet woods, come,
Where the boughs rain when it blows.

There is the gale to urge behind
And bruit our singing down,
And the shallow waters aflutter with wind
From which to gather your gown.
What matter if we go clear to the west,
And come not through dry-shod?
For wilding brooch shall wet your breast
The rain-fresh goldenrod.

Oh, never this whelming east wind swells
But it seems like the sea's return
To the ancient lands where it left the shells
Before the age of the fern;
And it seems like the time when after doubt
Our love came back amain.
Oh, come forth into the storm and rout
And be my love in the rain.

I Know What I Will Be Doing At Work for the Next Month Or So . . . .

HT: Neatorama

Quote of the Day

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

- Peter Drucker

The Watchmen

This American Life and the guys at Planet Money have teemed up once again to cast the most recent economic downturn into simple everyday language. This week they try to answer the question - who is to blame?

Teaser:

Since Congress hasn't held 1930's-style hearings into the causes of the financial crisis, we stage one of our own. The subject? The regulators and watchdogs who were supposed to be overseeing the banks and the finance industry—to make sure things wouldn't blow up like they have. Clearly something went wrong. Today we pound a gavel and ask: where were the watchmen?

Worth a listen.

Kickstand

A Hymn to God the Father

by John Donne

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
And, having done that, thou hast done;
I fear no more.

Quote of the Day

Soon after this evening, Jack wrote to Arthur Greeves: " . . . I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ . . . My long night talk with [Hugo] Dyson and [JRR] Tolkien had a great deal to do with it."

The conversion took place on September 22, 1931, while Jack was sitting in the sidecar of Warren's motorcycle en route to Whipsnade, the safari zoo. "When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God," Jack wrote, "and when we reached the zoo I did." It was not an emotional conversion, nor was he aware of his reasoning. "It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake."

- from Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

Father's Day Movie #4

Big Fish



Submit your suggestions in the comments or e-mail them to Mattthew.m.linden@gmail.com

Quote of the Day

[A man cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven until he has reached the stage of] not caring two straws about his own status.

- CS Lewis in Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

I Have Two New Teeth Coming In Right Here!

A Whole New World

I suppose as we go through life we all reserve a certain amount of judgement for our parents. Many times I have thought about what I would do the same or differently if I was a father. What lessons do I feel my parents successfully passed on to me and which ones do I feel they missed . . .

If I were a father, what are the important things in life that I would want to prepare my son or daughter for and how the heck do you take a child from diapers to their own apartment or college dorm in 18 short years??

And then you have a child born with some medical challenges and you realize that you are totally ignorant and unprepared to guide your child through some of the a major aspects of her life.

Thought you had a handle on teaching your child about the bathroom? Guess again! Thought you could manage taking your child through the stages of mobility? Not so fast. Thought you had a pretty good idea of how to help your child deal with the expectations and judgements of society at large? Hold on there.

Its like spending your entire life studying for a major history exam only to wake up on exam day and discover that you not only have the anticipated history test - but you also have a major math test to take - simultaneously - that you never studied for.

I may be making too much of it all but I have this overriding sense that I need to start cramming in terms of things Annie can expect in life. I don't want to stare blankly at Annie-lu when she asks me a simple question about how she should do x-y or z. I want to be able to shrug my shoulders smile and say, "It's easy - I'll show you how".

So with that in mind, a few weeks back, we loaded up the kids (Annie and Buckley) and headed to the Anaheim convention center for the Abilities Expo. As the name suggests, it is an Expo for people with disabilities.

There were booths for summer camps, wheelchairs and accessible bathroom remodels. They had an entire showroom of wheel-chair accessible automobiles, along with displays for all sorts of little gizmos and gadgets that make living life with a disability a little less dis-ableing.

One of the hot spots at the expo was the Coloures wheelchair booth. These people have decided to bring wheelchair technology out of the shadows, give it some hip, give it some cool, give it some bling and then hired beautiful models who happen to be WC-bound to represent them. It was quite a scene.

There were a few demonstrations that were awe-inspiring as well. There was a tennis court set up in the corner of the expo hall for para-Olympian tennis champion Kaitlyn Verfuerth who was putting on a clinic for people in WC's that wanted to try out the sport.

I don't know about you, but in the past, whenever I think of para-Olympics, I mistakenly think of something akin to Special Olympics - disabled children running hand-in-hand, having a great time with no clear winner. A worthy endeavor - not really championship athletics though.

*Ahem* Para-Olympics is most definitely NOT Special Olympics. For one, the Para-Olympics is held following the actual Olympics - at the same Olympic venues.

When Kaitlyn Verfuerth wheeled onto the court with a big smile and arms that make Michelle Obama look like the skinny kid at school I thought, "This looks interesting". And then they served her a couple of volleys and she absoultely crushed the ball - sending it powering back over the net, all the while spinning 360, this way and that in a blinding display of, "You want a peice of me? Come and take it - I dare you."

"Holy crap." I exclaimed as I turned to the wife. And I slowly came to the realization that although this person was WC bound, she far exceeded me as an athlete - and could utterly dismantle me if she wanted to.

Another highlight was a fashion show complete with a runway and announcer. It makes perfect sense - people in WC's want to look just as hip and fashionable as everyone else only they have to get dressed and undressed while seated. Not to mention that being seated all day means you need longer hemlines etc.

As the first model wheeled her way down the runway, the wife gasped at her cute dress - I gasped under my breath too but not because of the dress. These ladies were models in every sense of the word. And many of the clothes caught the wife's eye.

The expo finished off with Aaron Fotheringham doing his trademark back flip.

We ran into a couple of families that we knew from Children's hospital and talked with some other parents who, although we were strangers, were more than willing to answer questions we had about their children's disabilities and how they have overcome certain challenges.

All in all, it was a great experience. It was good to see products that we had never even considered before and it was great to see that there is a whole industry dedicated to lending a hand.

For instance, did you know that just about any car out there can be modified in minutes so that someone without use of their legs can operate the gas and break with hand levers? (you need a special license to drive that way).

Above all, I got the sense that there is something of a renaissance going on in the disabled community. Maybe it has always been there and I am just seeing it for the first time. My impression is that our society has not always been very accepting of differences (racial, economic, religious, abilities) but that more and more, we are becoming a society that is more accepting of different-ness. And as a result, there is a new generation of disabled teens and children and their parents that simply will not be content to have their lives defined solely by their disability.

In fact, the Colours booth looked more like a skate-board shop than a WC shop - with all their hip gear and young, athletic staff.

It was quite the experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who may be the slightest bit interested. And it was totally free!

I also came away feeling like I might not flunk this unexpected exam after all . . .

Oh, and Buckley had a great time as well - making his first training run as a Therapy Dawg . . .

Quote of the Day

The trouble about God is that he is like a person who never acknowledges your letters and so in time you come to the conclusion either that he does not exist or that you have got his address wrong.

- CS Lewis (pre-conversion) in Jack: A Life of CS Lewis

Non-Medical Update

So the in-home therapist did an evaluation last week and pronounced Annie right on track or ahead of the game in terms of overall development (with the exception of trunk strength and movement in her legs).

We currently see an in-home therapist once every two weeks and the wife takes Annie to PT/OT once a week as well. Holly is very good about doing therapy work-out sessions with Annie just about every day on top of it all.

The wife and I do a fair amount of singing around the house for no particular reason and there is always a definite reaction from the wee one. Whenever we sing her eyes brighten and she breaks into a broad grin. The other day at therapy, the PT gave Annie a toy piano to bang on and the wife said Annie went berserk in wide eyed wonder and amazement - as if she was witnessing her very first miracle. Too early to tell, I suppose, but we may have a musician on our hands. I actually had a dream the other night that Annabelle was a beautiful 20-something seated on stage in a darkened club strumming a guitar and singing into a microphone in front of a packed house of adoring fans.

Yesterday evening, the wife "released the hound" as usual when she heard my car pull into the drive. It's so great to be greeted by the Big Dawg when I come home - I am constantly reminded of the saying "The goal of a man's life is to be the kind of person his dawg thinks he is".

When I walked through the door, the peanut was in her papazan chair watching a video while mom was doing dishes. Annie's face beamed with joy and the arms started a-flailing when she saw me . . . she wouldn't take her eyes off me as I walked in and set my stuff down. It was one of the first times that it was totally obvious to me that she was excited to see me and wanted me to pick her up - which I did, of course. And then she proceeded to jabber all about her day with me.

As we near the end of another phase of construction on the house, the wife has been in full clean-up mode and the place really is looking nice - so nice to come home to a clean house full of a wife, dawg, and daughter who love you.

We decided to eat on the patio last night and set up Annie in her stroller with her stuffed Owl we picked up in Idyllwild. It was the first time I have ever seen her squeal and hug a stuffed toy to her face - it looks like we may be getting the hang of hugs . .

The other day my wife took a toy from Bella during a diaper change and it was the first time Annie-Lu has ever cried in response to having something taken away.

True to form, 99% of the time Annabelle smiles and coos and squeals or contentedly jabbers - all smiles all the time. A number of our friends who are parents themselves have remarked that they have never seen a more contended baby.

The exception lately has been when her little gums are bothering her (you can feel two little jagged teeth coming in dead-center in her lower gums. Annabalu is getting the hang of teething rings though and that is helping.

Annie is also learning about sippy cups although she has yet to actually use one. We usually put some watered down juice in it and make it available to her. She grabs the handle, bangs it around for a while and usually ends up chewing on the handle . . .

We are also experimenting with letting her feed herself by tossing little baby crackers on her tray or letting her take the spoon during feedings which so far has only succeeded in creating more laundry.

The other day I stood at the kitchen window doing dishes in the sun, Annie was happily jibbber-jabbing in her stroller behind me and I watched the dawg rolling on the back lawn and I thought, "Man, it ain't all bad . . ."

"Things are only going to get better", the wife said to me last night (a phrase we have used many times in our nearly 17 years of marriage). Then she clarified, "Things with Annie are only going to get better and better. Despite the difficulties, I have enjoyed every stage with Annabelle and it is just going to keep getting more and more fun. I love being her mom."

Well. It ain't all bad . . . .

Light and Shadow

75 Years Ago Today

Donald Duck debuts

On this day in 1934, Donald Duck makes his first film appearance, in The Wise Little Hen, a short by Walt Disney. Donald, along with Mickey Mouse (who debuted in 1928), would become one of Disney's most beloved characters. Donald's popularity also led to other characters in the Duck family, including Daisy Duck, Uncle Scrooge, and nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louey.