Shout-out to Stacy

There's probably a rule about having a critical mass of blog followers before you begin using it for shout-outs. But irregardless of that...

I want to give a shout-out to Stacy, who is undergoing surgery today. By now she's probably pepped up on enough painkillers to (a) see miniature flying pachyderms in her hospital room; and/or (b) find my blog enjoyable.

Stacy is one of Seth's favorite people... to spit up on!
(in the voice of Triumph, the insult dog)

Anyway -- good luck. We're all counting on you.

Procrastinate much?

I'm much more prolific with blog entries during the workday than evenings or weekends. Coincidence? Of course, it's also the only time that The Boy isn't around to provide entertainment.

Eastern Market burned

Since most aspects of my life now revolve around The Boy, I missed this news item this morning. Thanks to AC for pointing it out on his blog.

The Eastern Market building behind Capitol Hill burned overnight. From the news stories, it sounds like it was pretty well gutted.

I'm bummed about this. Eastern Market is one of my favorite places in DC. Rachel and I have gone there many times to walk around the flea market and farmer markets. We've taken friends there -- some of whom subsequently admitted that DC is a cooler city than they'd thought.

At one end of the building, there was a Jewish-pseudo-kosher-deli/bakery, with hand-painted signs that looked to be at least 50 years old. They sold a few varieties of kosher meat, although it wasn't a kosher establishment. But I occasionally bought a coffee and a danish from them.

Here's Marc Fisher's blog (Washington Post), I concur with his hope that the produce, art, and other vendors that setup outside the building should be open for business this weekend.

Global Warming

...a very serious topic.

But do you know the real cause? Thanks to an enlightened reader of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, it's all so clear now.

Thanks to my brother for pointing this out last week. He and I debated which is the more significant comment on Arkansas: That the writer really thinks she's correct, or that the newspaper editor chose to publish this letter?

Update: It was all a joke. Very well, Ms. Meskimen. You got us. And if your intent was to entertain, you've done a fine job.

Seth, a.k.a. The Boy

Today is Seth's five-month "birthday." I know it's silly that new parents call every progression of time a Birthday, but it helps us mark the milestones. And then we can check a dozen different books and websites to make sure that the child's progress is "normal" or "on schedule" or "within normal ranges."

My favorite example -- Your Baby's First Year Week by Week, which sits on our coffee table. For every new skill, it always gives a disclaimer that all babies are different, they reach developmental milestones on their own schedule, yada yada yada... and yet, each week's entry includes the baby's length and weight. Excerpt:

How big is baby this 22nd week?
Baby weighs 15 1/4 pounds and is 25 1/2 inches long this week.

So, to be clear -- he might start crawling anywhere from 4 months to 10 months, but something's wrong if he's not 15.25lb at exactly 22 weeks!

Anyway, Seth decided to celebrate his 5-month birthday by waking up at 3:15 AM, ready to party. He's woken up during the night before, but it's always because he's unhappy -- either uncomfortable from teething, or hungry, etc. This morning was different -- he was just singing away and attempting somersaults in his crib. We tried to calm him down, but to no avail. By 4:00, he'd degenerated from Playful to hungry, and Rachel -- bless her -- patiently made up a bottle, fed him, and got him to fall back asleep.

Anyway, as I laid in bed, I found myself wondering why he'd woken up at 3:15, ready to play. He'd been particularly tired yesterday evening, so it was all the more surprising. I eventually came to the undeniable conclusion that he'd been Punk'd by some of the other babies. I'm pretty sure they sent him an Evite for a 5-month Birthday Celebration at 3:30 AM. Or maybe they texted him:

Party@3:30
Hpy 5mo Bday!
Bring xtra diprs!

Pretty cruel to get The Boy's hopes up like that. But he's clever - I bet he spits up in their bottles when they aren't looking.

I blog! I'm a blogger!

Sad, isn't it? Haven't seen this movie in years, but suddenly I have this clip running through my head.

Find what: sail
Replace with: blog

Super Foods, huh?

They say "no good deed goes unpunished," and I've found the culinary confirmation of this cliche.

Last night, I stopped into Whole Foods to pick up a couple of things, including dinner. I grabbed a package of sashimi for myself, and vegetarian maki for my wife, who's still squeamish about eating raw animals. Just in case the sushi might not satisfy our appetites, I also grabbed a pre-packaged salad labeled "'Everything' Super Food Salad." It looked colorful and a quick glance at the ingredients (frustratingly located on the bottom of the package) confirmed that it contained no meat.

We didn't get to the salad last night, so it became today's lunch. While it was indeed colorful, I've just discovered that "super foods" must not refer to their flavor.

Let me start with the raw cacao beans. Now I'm no culinary expert, but I'm pretty sure that Cacao is the raw material for chocolate. And chocolate is yummy. However, I've now figured out why Cacao must be thoroughly processed before it becomes a Hershey bar. Christopher Columbus's posse once mistook a large batch of native Cacao beans for rabbit poop. Looking at them on my salad, and even after tasting them, I can clearly see how easy it would be to make this mistake.

The salad also contains Goji Berries. These look like bright red raisins, only they are much softer. The skin is about the consistency of really-old-people-wrinkled-hands skin. The taste really isn't bad, but that consistency is just a tad disturbing.

Any salad which contains blueberries, spinach, peanuts and cashews can't be all bad. But the bitter Kale, strange Acai yogurt dressing, and oddball berries mentioned above made it pretty tough to choke down.

But at least I can now feel confident that blueberry cobbler and a bag of peanuts are part of a Super Foods diet.