Mail From the Peep Fairy!

Mail From the Peep Fairy!
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Today we got surprise mail from the Peep Fairy! Does she deliver to you too? Somehow she find me every year. Thank you Peep Fairy!

...And I too am concerned about the new Peep colors.....

The Rock Album Challenge

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit "random... Read More... Read More" or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

The FIRST random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. (alternatively, if the first article you hit is short, hit Random Article two more times.)

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days

Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or Picnik.com or other photo editor to put it all together.

Welcome To Vermont, February Style

...At any minute the priest from the Exorcist will step under the streetlight...

Admission and Plea

It's time admit to you all that 2008 was a very difficult year for me, and 2009 continues to be equally rough. You can see it on my face, I think, and it's time I let you know how I've changed. If you think it's appropriate, feel free to pray for me. With your help I know I can bounce back from this.

50 people see sadness and happiness

50 people see sadness and happiness
Originally uploaded by flipzagging

Stumbled across this little experiment on Flickr. This fellow created some sort of thingie for merging 50 "flickr" images together, all with the same descriptive "tag". On the left: sadness. On the right: happiness.

They are remarkably similar in tone. But happiness seems to have more...form.

Hmmm.

To Continue The Theme....

Jonathan Coulton: "Lady Aberlin’s Muumuu"


Also see: Jonathan Coulton swoons because Betty Aberlin commented about his song.

Bonus note: Betty Aberlin has actually written a rather cool-sounding book--a kind of poetic dialog with a 19th century Scottish poet. Kind of intriguing.

Windstorm in Bubbleland

Oh man.

I first saw this with my then-one-year-old, and in the fog of young parenthood I think it blew my mind.

Its bizarre mix of surrealism, kitsch, and charm sent me running for a blank VCR tape (this was 8 years ago), but I only captured the last 2/3 of it. And my VCR died 4 years ago. So I haven't even thought of it in a long time. At one time I even emailed the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood production company to try to get a copy--to no avail.

It didn't occur to me until this morning that someone must have posted it on youtube by now. So here it is, in three parts. Enjoy, but please don't write a lengthy appreciation of it--that's something I've been wanting to do for years. It's mine.

Day After Day After V-Day Post

Today the boy worked on yet another valentine for the 9-year-old apple of his eye. This one he's sending in the mail, a heart-shaped piece of white paper with the words...

"Dear -----,
I don't know if
I can tell you this,
but, I might. OK, I will.
I think you're nice,
you're pretty, and you're
great.

---Fergus"

The Day-After-Valentines Day Posting

You never know what's around the corner. Like when you're looking for ideas online for building nesting boxes for chickens? And, you know, you find some nice instructions on a small poultry farm website, and you see that they sell interesting breeds of hen as well, so you click on the link and you see that every breed is sold out--every single breed--and then you see that the banner says "Breeds We Used to Sell," and below that, poignantly, in a painful red font:

"PLEASE NOTE: WE ARE NO LONGER IN THE POULTRY BUSINESS. JUSTINE HAS FILED FOR DIVORCE AND WE HAVE SOLD ALL THE BIRDS AND MOST OF THE GOATS BECAUSE I'M IN A WHEELCHAIR AND CAN'T CARE FOR THEM. THE WEBSITE WILL REMAIN AS A SOURCE OF POULTRY RAISING INFORMATION, BUT PLEASE IGNORE ANY REFERENCE TO EGG OR POULTRY SALES. THE EGG/BIRD SALES PAGES WILL BE REMOVED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE."

The web page hasn't been updated in two years.

Valentines Day Notes

Overheard at the end of the school day yesterday (February 13th):

Nine-year-old Boy: "Do you love anyone at this school?"
Eight-year-old Boy: (blank look) "Uh, No."
Nine-year-old Boy: "I do. I love (name redacted)." A simple statement of fact.
Eight-year-old Boy: "Oh." (Puts on coat and goes to find boots) (He might as well have heard, "I like peanut butter.")

...This same 9-year-old boy told me that he gave THREE valentines to the girl in question. I asked him if she gave any to him and he said, "Yes, one, and when she gave me her valentine I crumpled down into myself with shyness." And he smiled and looked off into the distance as if this was a delicious thing to even remember.

So, to state the obvious lesson for parents: do not let your three-year-old's dressup habits lead you down the garden path of Making Assumptions. Then again, he DOES look fabulous in a tutu, so anything is possible in the future.... :-)

(Fergus at Three) (Roxbury VT Playgroup)

13th Annual Father/Daughter Valentines Dance

13th Annual Father/Daughter Valentines Dance
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Popcorn before dancing, of course.

13th Annual Father/Daughter Valentines Dance

13th Annual Father/Daughter Valentines Dance
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

N and I ready to leave for Montpelier's Father/Daughter dance--our first time. I was nervous! She had wet fingernails!

Can't Stand the Quiet (For Lauren and Hal)

Somehow this seems appropriate today. An excerpt from the 1992 film, "Simple Men". I miss Hal Hartley!




(Music by Sonic Youth, "Kool Thing")

Messages One Would Rather Not Receive

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: oops
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 09:28:53 -0500
From: Lauren Quinn <heraddress@gmail.com>
To: Rob Ryan <myaddress@uvm.edu>

just dropped the phone in the toilet

sigh