Devi's visit

My godmother Devi was visiting us over the weekend to see Nathaniel. Apparently she received our picture that we sent out (12 month photo) and decided she had to come. She arrived on Thursday, though, so it was a little bit tougher due to ECFE. And he made it tougher by not napping in the morning, so he was tired for the meeting, but was still generally his happy self. Seeing Papaaaa and Soniya didn't hurt. We had to leave relatively early on Thursday, but we had a good Friday and even managed a short visit Saturday morning before she had to go. We did lunch at Little Szechuan where Nathaniel loved to look at the fish in their tanks, and dinner at Peninsula (where Devi had gone on Thursday afternoon but wanted to go again.)

I had dressed him in some of my old clothes on Thursday, but Devi didn't see me enough at that age to recognize them, but I did get a comment about the cool "retro" clothes that he was wearing at ECFE. I said it wasn't so much retro as "original" and were mine when I was his age. I think I ought to write more about ECFE and how the first separation there went.

Update on a few things

Nathaniel has now gone to two ECFE classes. They've gone as well as could be expected. He's done pretty well with not taking toys away from the other kids, and while at his age you can't expect much active joint-play, he's always been interested in watching other children. The songs are, of course, inane and slightly insipid, but that's about right for the age group in question. It's stuff that I know they will enjoy, and it's amazing to me to watch Nathaniel's face as the group around him sings "and Nathaniel's here today, and Nathaniel's here today, yay Nathaniel!" or "The sign today is Water, the sign today is water, high ho a derio, the sign today is water." He's quite interested in what's going on and just taking it all in. The classes are on Thursdays.

This past Thursday went quite well. Stephanie had to leave at least as early as usual and Nathaniel got us up in plenty of time as is normal, but then I had to try to adjust his schedule so that the class doesn't come at the absolute worst time. It's scheduled for 12:30-2:30, which is, of course, right in the middle of lunch and then nap time. So instead, I've tried to keep him awake until about 10:00 so that we can have an early lunch and hopefully be ready to nap when we get home without getting too cranky. It went well, and I think it's going to work for the long term. It might even end up being the regular schedule rather than just on Thursdays. We'll see how he takes it.

But he ate well, he slept for acceptable lenthgs of time, and was not cranky for the most part. Even when Stephanie came home for around five minutes before going out again to a retirement party, he still was in good spirits and ate well, played calmly, read books and was agreeable in getting ready for bed (even if he didn't actually fall asleep until after a good hour of rocking.) I could do with more days like that. Far too often I end up feeling like I"m doing a horrible job because he's cranky, or I feel like I'm not giving him enough attention because I'm reading or browsing the web while he plays in the living room. I worry that I'm being too selfish in hoping he naps so that I can have an hour or if I'm lucky two to myself. (I haven't been able to bike in weeks and weeks for uncertainty in how long he'll nap.) If he remains this reasonable, I think things will be Ok.

Last night Jake and I went to Town Hall to watch the Twins game. I'd been wanting a night off away like that for weeks, and it finally came and it went pretty well also. The game was a bit of a bust, we lost 10-1, and my Walleye Hoagie was very disappointing given my wonderful memories of it, and there weren't any good seasonal beers or cask ales, but the beer was still good, and the ability to just be away, talk about nothing and reminisce for three or four hours was really nice. I brought home a growler of Hope and King Scotch Ale too, and look forward to having a chance to break it out and drain it.

The Twins were supposed to have Carl Pavano pitch last night, but having re-jigged the rotation to get the playoff order they want, it was Francisco LIriano. Which wouldn't have matter the least to me, had I not earlier in the day shaved a magnificantly ridiculous Pavstache in honor of his start. I will continue to sport it today (and we'll see for how long) as he pitches this evening instead.

Star Trek and Star Wars

I recently picked up a few Star Trek episodes from the library. They were in a set of "Fan Collectives" meaning that it was a theme of Time Travel across four of the series (Enterprise was not included.) I was a big TNG fan back in the day, but now I can't really get myself to watch reruns even. It's not the case with other shows which require a difficult suspension of disbelief, and it's not about the writing, because there are certainly some good episodes; I just can't stand them any more. It's strange. Anyway, I also got Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and something struck me while I watched it. The difference between Star Trek and Star Wars... and by extension the prequel trilogy as well.

The models show a big difference. Star Trek models, indeed Star Trek in general has a very clean, sterile look. Star Wars in general has a very dirty look. Used, battered, etc. I think that lends itself to seeming more realistic. In a world where peopel are exploring planets, things get dirty and used. I realize that the idea of a perfect future like Star Trek includes magical cleaning things, but give me a break, it's just too much. I was startled to see that ILM interviews in the special features of the ST:III DVD echoed precisely this, comparing their model-making process to those for Star Wars and for Alien(s.)

Then I thought about the prequel trilogy. Everything looks much cleaner. I'd previously thought that perhaps, even though the CGI was quite good, and at times indistinguishable from model work, that was what had bothered me about the prequels, but I think I hadn't quite hit on it with that. What bothered me wasn't that it was all CGI, but rather that everything seemed much too clean and shiny for Star Wars. It's in keeping with the chronology; the prequels take place during the height of the Republic, when things were shiny and new; clean and kept up, but it still just doesn't have the same feel. And I think that's what actually bothered me about the CGI, and what made the prequels have so much of a different feeling and simply a lack of the magic that was inherent in the original trilogy, where you had the sense of a greatness lost, and could see remnants of it. I'm a sucker for lost technology and stuff like that, loving that discussion in The Lost World.

So it's been like eight years since I updated this...

Been forever since I posted on this blog, and a part of that has been the weight I feel of trying to make an update after such a long hiatus. Of course, this is the same dilemma for a number of things. If you wait too long for something, and are intimidated by the wait, it just gets worse and harder to start. So I figured, best to just post. But then it comes to actually writing something, and even with all that's been going on, I just can't seem to get the energy to write anything of any interest. I've been suffering from some depression/malaise/listlessness the last several weeks, and that hasn't helped. Anyways, I'm hoping that merely by making an update I'll be more likely to begin updating again. Also, I'm thinking that I might be better about it if I don't feel like it has to be every day again. So we'll see how it goes.

Yesterday was Nathaniel's second to last swimming lesson for the session. Although they started while I was gone in South Africa, I've quite enjoyed going to the last two or three of them. He likes the water for the most part, although he gets cold after only about 15-20 minutes in the water, so the 25 minute length is about right. His favorite is jumping into the water from the sides, although he also enjoys playing with a ball sometimes as well. He's not too interested in the actual swimming aspects as yet--stretching his arms, kicking his legs, etc.--but he does splash sometimes when asked, and although not intentionally to try to transport himself he does kick a fair amount at times. I think the main goal of the exercise at this point is to acclimate him to the water itself, so that he's not afraid of it down the line. The major goal of that is getting his head under water. We try that two or three times per week, and of course he gets all shocked every time it happens. The instructors say that it's usually worse for mom and dad than for the kids, so we have to keep a happy face whenever we do it. By last night he was definitely reacting better than when I first got there. The first time, he decided he no longer trusted mommy and had to have daddy for a little while. Now, he recovers fairly quickly and is ready to start playing again. Progress.

So it's been a long time since I've updated this blog, and I'd like to say it's because I've been busy, and I have had my share of things going on, but there's really no other reason than laziness for the lack of updates. I am going to try to be better about updating what's going on.

Back Home

I got home late morning on Monday. I've been trying to get back into the swing of things back home since then, but it's been a bit of a struggle. Part of it is the number of things going on, part is the jet lag (33 hours with two hours of sleep and a seven hour time difference) but I think a part of it is simply having been gone for so long. Nearly four weeks of being away really upset my rhythm, making me feel like I don't know what I'm doing at home.

As for the results, I had a blast during all four games, but despite being able to really look on the bright side of losing in the round of 16, this morning I'm really feeling the disappointment of it. It's four more years until the next world cup, and it's a bit depressing to think that it will be so long before the next really meaningful game. Qualification is two years away, but the hex is even farther. There's a friendly against Brazil in August, I think, so hopefully there will be an air of optimism after the decent World Cup performance. Maybe we can find some forwards. It would be cool if Charlie Davies were able to play in that friendly and showed himself as back to his best.