The play structure is complete


Torture device

The 2007 Sunray Premium Playground play structure Helen bought at Costco is finally complete. Special thanks go to Dad, Raj, Bill, Matt, Ralf, Helen, and Katrina for assisting in various ways. I’ve selected some pictures of the play structure’s construction to display in our photo gallery.

If I never see another #8 1½” Phillips wood screw, it’ll be too soon. There were 521 of them.

Helen Town’s Diaper Price Spreadsheet

As many families do, we go through a lot of diapers. Enough so that Helen had me create a spreadsheet in Excel for her to help figure out where to get the cheapest diapers. It’s available here.

Yummy yogurt


Salami girl

(While eating lunch of yogurt, salami, cheese, and blueberries)

Katrina: “What do I have to eat in order to get more cherry yogurt?”

Me: (laughing) “Eat another piece of salami. Then you can have more yogurt!”

I should probably explain that I tend to have Katrina eat something of greater substance before Katrina can have more dessert. Yogurt as dessert? For Katrina, yes—she could eat two containers in one sitting, no problem.

My discovery flight yesterday, plus jam

For Christmas Valentine’s Day, Helen bought me a discovery flight from Brooklynair, a flight school on Grosse Ile. I finally took it yesterday.






I’m pretty sure the plane was a Diamond DA20-C1 Eclipse. The wind buffeted the two-seater around quite a bit, but it didn’t bother me. The fact that I had a death grip on the stick would have been true regardless of the wind.

On the way home, I stopped to get some Magic: The Gathering cards at a shop in Wyandotte. I’m not a collector or anything — I think we have one starter pack around here from a few years ago, and that’s about it. A few weeks ago I saw that they were releasing a new edition on Friday, and I thought it might be fun to get a couple of decks that Helen and I could play — we’re always looking for good two-player games. The store was closed until noon, so I had half an hour to kill.

There was a Polish market nearby, so I stopped in. I strolled around inside, looking for anything to catch my eye. I knew there are different Polish foods that Helen enjoys, but I didn’t really know what they were, so I was hoping if they were there, I’d spot them.

Then, in the third or fourth aisle (this was a pretty large Polish market, located on Fort Street), I saw what I didn’t know I was looking for — jams. Helen’s been talking about wanting red currant jam for several months now, but all she’s been able to find is red currant jelly. Well, it took a minute, but I found some red currant jam in that aisle, and I knew I would be one of Helen’s favorite people that day.

After leaving with two jars of jam, a bag of pierogi, some horseradish mustard, and a pound of kabanosy (one of my favorite kinds of sausage), I headed to the card store. After stopping into the store, getting a brief lesson in the insanity that is Magic: The Gathering, leaving to get cash at the bank across the street because they don’t take credit cards, going back into the card store, and buying two core decks of the new Tenth Edition cards, I headed home.

UPDATE: Helen tells me it was Valentine’s Day.

Brilliant girl

(7/12/2007 while eating salad at the dinner table)

Katrina: “Let’s pretend that lettuce is a plant …”
Me: “It IS a plant.”
Katrina: “But, then we don’t have to PRETEND!!!”

Creature spotted in our backyard


Creepy cryptid

We saw a strange creature in our backyard.

(Comments from old site:)

"Strange Creature"

That is a woodchuck/groundhog. Isn’t he cute?

Ahh… Cool!

Ahh… Cool!

Fred!

That’s Fred, the same animal I found in my Mom’s basement a few weeks ago. Wow, he really gets around! ;)

Happy 30th birthday, Sarah!

It’s my sister Sarah’s 30th birthday today! Here’s Elena doing the robot.



This is from our new high-definition camcorder, a Canon HV20, and is the first footage I’ve imported from it to Helen’s MacBook Pro.