Slap shot

I still have a lot to learn about hockey (it wasn't exactly in my blood--let alone on my TV--growing up in Southern California). But we're lucky enough to have an amazing player (Alex Ovechkin) and a pretty good team (the Capitals) here in DC, so I'm trying to get a little more into it. And I don't think you have to know much about hockey to know that this is pretty amazing:

Timeout

There obviously hasn't been much bloggage on our part lately. This has largely been a function of:

-- Gretchen and Mädchen being in Wisconsin;

-- My moving out of the house while they were away because the house was being painted;

-- The painters forgetting to do the rewiring, which resulted in our being without internet access for several days upon our return to the (newly painted!) house; and

-- Our spending way more time on Facebook than on the blog.

To quote the late Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, "so it goes."

We'll get back around to it, but in the meantime here's something I posted on Facebook. There has been a "bucket list" going around where you're supposed to check things off a list that you've done. But a lot of things on the list are actually kind of lame, so a friend posted her own list and encouraged others to do the same. This was what I came up with:

* * * * *

I know realistically that a lot of these things are probably never going to happen, and I won't feel badly if I never do them (with the possible exception of #1 and #2). But if money and time really were no object, this is what I wouldn't mind doing/achieving/seeing:

1. Be the best possible Dad to Anneliese. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means, and I'll probably never really know, but I don't ever want to stop trying to figure out how to raise her right.

2. Honor our wedding vows as long as Gretchen and I both shall live (although I don't actually remember our wedding vows...maybe I'd better read them again!).

3. Go on an African safari.

4. Learn how to fly-fish.

5. Take a long driving tour of national parks in the Western U.S. with the family. I've actually done this in bits and pieces over the years, but would love to do it again and see things through their eyes.

6. Either live in a slightly bigger house or actually have a second bathroom in our current house someday!

7. Learn to scuba dive, or at least take a resort course even if I don't get certified.

8. Live overseas again.

9. Become fluent in another language.

10. Live along the Northern or Central California coast.

11. Learn to play the cello.

12. Write a book.

13. Go to South America (the only continent other than Antarctica--which I have no desire to visit--that I haven't been to). Machu Picchu would be ideal, but so would Brazil, Argentina, etc.

14. Go to North Dakota and Alaska (the only two states I've never been to).

15. Go to Vietnam.

16. Go to India, but don't get sick there.

17. Vacation in either Tahiti or the Maldives.

18. Go north of the Arctic Circle and see the midnight sun (preferably in Norway).

19. Do the things I should have done when we lived in Switzerland and still kick myself for not doing:
-- Visit Scotland
-- Visit Sweden, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia
-- Visit the Engadin in Switzerland
-- Visit Dubrovnik, Croatia
-- Take Gretchen to Istanbul and Cairo, which I saw but she didn't and I would love to see again
-- See either a Champions League match or an English or Spanish rivalry match (e.g., Barcelona-Real Madrid or Liverpool-Manchester United...that's soccer, by the way)
-- Eat at a Michelin 3-star restaurant

20. Go to Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia [although a friend later pointed out that he thought Uluru was nothing special and that I should consider adding Angkor Wat instead, which is indeed someplace I'd love to go]

Playing scrabble in Wisconsin

Ama, this one's for you!

'Tis the season

Other than Christmas, the happiest time of year may be...Girl Scout cookie season! Gretchen thought it was maybe a little excessive that I ordered five boxes of Thin Mints for personal consumption, but I can eat those bad boys all day long...

Spoil sports

This is probably a post Gretchen should do, but since (a) she's in Wisconsin with Mädchen (where else would you want to be in February?), and (b) she doesn't have much time to blog anyway, I'll give it a shot.

A few weeks ago we got a newsletter from Mädchen's preschool with instructions on what to do if your kid was planning to bring valentines to classmates. Our natural reaction was that of course it would be a waste to do valentines because she and her classmates wouldn't really appreciate it since THEY'RE ONLY TWO YEARS OLD. Seems reasonable, right? Well, you can probably guess where this is going...

Sure enough, I think Mädchen ended up being one of the only (and maybe THE only) kids in her class not to bring valentines for the other kids. And many of them not only gave valentines, but they also gave lollipops and other candy. Fortunately since THEY'RE ONLY TWO YEARS OLD it's not like either Mädchen or her classmates know the difference, but Gretchen felt like she was being some kind of neglectful Mom for not having her bring them. (For what it's worth, we've never celebrated Valentine's Day, even during our lovey-dovey early dating days.) I'd probably feel the same way if I were in her shoes, but frankly I still think the whole thing is sort of absurd--we're in a deep recession, people...let's teach our kids to spend wisely and frugally!

Oh, and just for the record, she LOVED getting the valentines.

Speedo Guy

This is still the best attempt to distract a free-throw shooter that I've ever seen:

Perils of homeownership

Our dishwasher has evidently been leaking water into the basement for some time.

We have squirrels and/or other critters living in our attic.

We thought we might have mold spreading through our ducts, although the heating company thinks it's just dust. Either way, for someone with allergies it's not good.

One of the light fixtures in our backyard looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

You need both hands, and often a shoulder, to position our front door just so to be able to open the lock.

The rusty aluminum shed in the backyard is mostly overgrown with ivy and is probably sustaining several species of rodent.

One of our basement window wells has caved in.

And I'm probably forgetting another dozen things.

We love our neighborhood, and we know we're blessed to own a house and not be facing the problems that so many others are facing these days, but there are definitely days it would be nice to be able to just call a landlord and have everything fixed for us...

More great moments in parenting

One way you can tell you've let your daughter watch too much Little Einsteins: When you're at the park and pushing her on the swing, she says "higher, Daddy...CRESCENDO!"

Rockin' it Bollywood style

I first heard the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" when I saw the movie "Inside Man" on a long flight. I finally tracked it down and have been listening to it constantly on iTunes, but even that couldn't have prepared me for the sheer awesomeness of this video:

Did I really just do that?

I'll admit that I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, but this one takes the cake.

Yesterday, while picking up a preschool application at a local church (one that we've been attending with no regularity), I backed into the Pastor's car. And it made a dent in his car. Not mine, just his.

I've always been known as a distracted driver. I commented to Kirk yesterday that it's somewhat amazing I haven't gotten into any accidents, just slow moving "bumps". Who could forget the damage I did just over a year ago when I backed into Kirk's Mom's mailbox.

At least one of our blog readers will remember the time I drove into the Dairy Queen back in my teen years. I guess I just got distracted by all those cute boys inside (the high school football team had just finished practice and were cooling off at DQ). Oh, the adventures and embarrassing moments just continue on...

The silver lining of yesterday's event is that I had a really nice chat with the Pastor about joining the church (assuming I finally feel ready to leave our current church which we haven't attended in over a year) and having Madchen FINALLY baptized there. Perhaps it was some sort of divine intervention that I managed to back into his car?!

Legos

Anyone who has lived in New York or spent much time there will probably get a kick out of this clever use of legos.