David (which was supposed to be Ben’s name) and Wesley (“as you wish”) move on to Round 2 of our baby name popularity contest. Here’s the full tournament tree (click on it to enlarge):

Round 2 starts today. Note: You can vote for up to three names.

When we stopped in Ghent, Belgium, to see the van Eyck Brothers’ masterpiece, we strolled across the plaza to a small Flemish-language bookstore. There we found a thick cardboard baby book called Mijn Eerste Woodenboek, or My First Word Book. Ben, who was two at the time, really liked the bright images and we were struck by how similar the Flemish words were to English. So we bought it as a keepsake.

Of course, not all the words are the same.

One of the minor annoyances of our house is how the previous owners made minor adjustments, but didn’t do it right. For example, when they added a phone line to the piano room (which they used as a “sitting room”), they just ran a phone cord along a heating duct and out under a register. Since we painted that room (and replaced the painted-over register), we decided to wire a jack into the wall.

I punched a perfectly-sized hole in the wall and installed the jack frame, but I couldn’t reach into the wall to pull through the line. I tried all sorts of tricks to wrangle to wire, but to no avail. Ben gave it a try (despite his fear of being shocked by the phone line), but he could only get his forearm into the hole.

Luckily, Super Miles, whose powers include being extremely small, came to our rescue. In about three seconds, he did what I had been trying to do for fifteen minutes.

As work continues on the piano room, I’ve needed to pick up a few more “responsibilities” of home ownership. One of these is a very large air compressor that I had hoped to use for painting (I’ll post on that later). While we were looking around, Brooke spotted some pneumatic pruning shears, regularly $80, marked down to $5 on clearance. I know, you’re thinking, “Why in the world would anyone use pruning shears that require an air supply?” Well, I thought that too, but Brooke couldn’t pass up the deal.

The first job I put them to was cutting some sheet metal for a missing return in the piano room. I had expected the shears to close slowly, like the jaws of life, but I was sorely mistaken. The blade slams shut with a “thunk” and then releases with a “shoof.” They made short work of the sheet metal.

Shears: Thunk-shoof. Thunk-shoof. Thunk-shoof. Thunk-shoof. Thunk-shoof.

Me: Bra-ha-ha-ha!

Brooke: That was an evil laugh.

So on Saturday, during halftime, I charged up the compressor and wheeled it out to a tree whose branches hang too close to the house. It was pretty scary how the shears bit new growth under ¾ of an inch. For branches an inch to 1½ inches thick, I had to rock the shears back and forth, but they went through in a second or two.

Then it hit me. Although these shears are one-handed, they are not meant to replace your typical gardening shears. (That didn’t stop me from trying: Trimming back the roses took all of thirty seconds.) These replace those unwieldy, long-handled clippers. In reality, having to wheel the compressor across the lawn takes little effort compared to clipping branches with the traditional shears.

The only downside is that you can only cut what you can reach. I’m going to attach these to an old broomstick and see if I can operate them with a string or something.

OK, so I guess no one really agreed with Jeremy’s names. Thomas and Rhett (puh-leeze, that was a joke!) move on, while Clovis joins Oswald as the only names to have garnered zero votes. They will share this round’s Alf Landon Award for electoral futility.

This heat is Brooke’s last five entries. After this, we will reseed the names for the next round.

Heat 4 ended this way:
Austin: 8
Owen: 6
Gavin: 6
Tristan: 3
Hayden: 3

Austin and Owen advance (Owen as a judge’s decision on the tie). The new list is the last heat of Jeremy’s names, so enjoy. We all know how much in common you have with his tastes.

Take heart 1980 Red Army hockey team, 1988 Oakland A’s, and any other overdog that’s been upset by a supposedly lesser opponent. Ranked #15 by some lame poll, Arizona State University’s football team lost at home in overtime to perennial Mountain West (soit-disant “Mid-major”) Conference doormat, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. (UNLV had only won two games each of the previous four seasons.) But all is not lost, for astute ASU players know who the better team really was. Said safety Troy Nolan about UNLV’s players, “They’re not on our level.”

Huh? You just lost to them. What does it matter who’s at whose level? Mr. Nolan: They. Beat. You. Period. Does anyone really care that Mike Tyson was a better boxer than Buster Douglas? Or that New England was undefeated going into the Super Bowl last year?

This is simply more of the circular logic and associated rubbish that’s been coming out of the poster conference of the BCS injustice. The Pacific Ten Conference, whose champion has an automatic berth to a prestigious and exclusive bowl game lost seven of ten inter-conference games this week. Four of those losses were to MWC teams, and two others were to teams not ranked in the top quartile of Division 1 “Football Bowl Subdivision”. Yet, somehow, those teams cling to some argument of Divine Right to justify why they deserve a guaranteed shot at the BCS title each year.

I finally understand why so many moms look forward to school starting in the fall. It’s not because we can’t wait to get rid of our kids, or are too busy for them. But, all that free time, with not much structure just about does us in. Now don’t get me wrong, we had a great summer. Many days were spent in our new yard playing with the neighbors, catching frogs and feeding the fish. It was great fun! But there is something wonderful about fall beginning and going back to school, one year older and new adventures beginning.

(more…)

Last semester, a student asked me if I ever get bored. That question stayed with me until I realized that, no, I can’t remember the last time I was bored. There are so many things worth my time and interest, and it takes so little effort to seize those idle moments, that I’m truly never without some thought in my mind.

That’s not to say that I never waste a minute, hour, or even a day. Not all pursuits are of equal value, and while I may sit and contemplate how a mind-blowing video game could offer insights into how to make school (and learning in general) more effective and interesting, that’s not what I should be doing with my time.

Tonight I face a similarly interesting question: Do I watch any movies for entertainment value?

My answer is an unequivocal, “Of course, I do!” I love to be entertained by movies, but there is a difference between willful suspension of disbelief and willful suspension of cognition. My idea of entertainment is not mindlessly watching images move across the screen. Having my brain shut down is in polar opposition to entertainment, in my opinion.

This doesn’t mean I only watch art house indy films (though I do like the foreign stuff). Even blockbusters can be great – if they don’t skimp on the dialog. For example, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one, the only one worth watching) features this brief exchange:

“Set top sails and clear up this mess.”
“With the wind at quarter astern, we won’t catch them.”
“We don’t need to catch them just get them in range of the long nines.”

I’ve never sailed, but I instantly understood from these lines that the wind was somehow unfavorable. Do you know what a “long nine” is? I didn’t, but the fact that the screenplayers didn’t care, and were confident enough that I could figure out that it referred to some sort of cannon lent the movie a palatability that is rare. See, even in what many consider a trite affair, there is opportunity for learning… which I consider enjoyable.

First, we had a good ultrasound on Friday. The twins are within 10g of each other, which is well within measurement error. Brooke is carrying 2.25lbs of baby around and is almost as big as when she was full term with Miles. You can see how cramped it’s getting in there in the twin’s photo album.

Second, Felix and Ansel advanced to the next round of baby name polling. George tied Ansel, but I’m less partial to that name. We have five new names this week. Have at them.

Finally, I’ve decided to read some Jane Austen. Since I’ve seen movie/mini-series versions of Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, and Emma, I decided to start with Persuasion, which Brooke “just loved.” The first few chapters have been good, a bit wordy and a bit pompous (which reminds me why I prefer French lit from the time period), but the context for the story is laid out succintly.

After Twilight, Brooke is not really happy I’m reading her books. I told her that countless women would love for their husbands to read Jane Austen, to which she replied, “But they don’t have you for a husband!”

Touché.