tonight & the last weekend

Whilst feeding the childrens their solid food…they took a break, so that Mr. Grunty could pound on the high-chair tray and Miss Squeaky could clap her hands.

Mr. G has gotten back into the grunting habit recently

Miss S likes to crawl to the bathroom, pull herself up on the tub, and pound on the side of the tub.

This past Saturday, my dad visited and he & I went to the local university open house. We learned some stuff. It was fun. Then we came over to visit the childrens. Miss S was hesitant, she hasn’t seen him since X-mas. She crawled up to about 2 feet away from him, then crawled away. Then crawled to 1′9″ and then crawled away….until she was close enough to touch his knee, and then crawl away. When I was changing her diaper, my dad and my son must been telling some kind of jokes because Mr. G was laughing lots & loudly.

Sunday, to give MyBetterHalf a chance for a nap*, I took the childrens for a walk in their new stroller. It was drizzling, but as we say her, “liquid sunshine”. Miss S shocked me by falling asleep and taking a long nap on the trip. Mr. G was wide awake for it. At a local park, we took a rest under a shelter, and I would pull the stroller close, and get my face close to Mr. G’s face. He found that hilarious.

is it “Highlander 7″??

alright, it was a bad idea, back when the
NBA did it …but now Time Magazine?

Although it is a slightly better motto than TNT’s “win or go home”. Seriously, if are the higher seed, and you sweep a team, it’s game 4, you won, and you get to go home. Or you lose, and then have to finish out a series on the road?

puffs

the childrens like to eat their puffs

all I have to do is rattle the canister, and Miss Squeaky will quickly come crawling, crying (without tears) because she wants the puffs. And when she’s in her high-chair, she’ll pick one up, and gnaw on it with her two front teeth.

Mr. Grunty will pick them up. But so far, won’t put them in his mouth. He knows they’re food, because if a parental picks one up, and holds it front of him, he lean forward and snap it right up with his lips. After he’s picked them off of his tray, he’ll open a hand, see it’s still there, and laugh jollily.

On a different note…
It is so wonderful when they make each other laugh.

“Large breasts and narrow waists…”

I just wanted to see if I could get your attention. But, seriously, let’s talk science. From the esteemed Proceeding of the Royal Society, back in 2004.

G Jasienska, A Ziomkiewicz, PT Ellison, SF Lipson & I Thune

And kids say science isn’t interesting. I think an article like this would be great to give to high school kids to read. Because, I think it would help teach them to think critically about the difference between an attention getting headline, and what the researchers can really claim to have found out.

Don’t believe the hype.

Figure one shows that women with narrow waist, and larger breast have more estradiol, a good indicator of fertility. What I find funny, is that there are four classes of women for this statistical analysis. I think a better way to look at the data, would be to graph the three variables in three axis. I suggest “breast size”, “waist-to-hip ratio”, and estradiol levels. Plot it out, then see if there are some correlations.

” ‘Large’ and ’small’ breasts were defined based no breast to underbreast ratio above average or below average respectively.” I am always suspect when a researcher has to decide which category to put the subject into. Especially when it can be easily measured. For example height. If they were drawing a conclusion and only had “tall” and “short”…we might not believe them.

What wasn’t used in the statistical analysis: age, body mass index, percentage of body fat.

It ends with “in Western society, the cultural icon of Barbie as a symbol of female beauty seems to have some biological grounding.” Oh, so evolution worked in such a way that that the modern Western ideal of sexy would be realized. I don’t buy it. I think that would be like saying evolution worked so that we could use forks.

So, is the Barbie body shape popular because of biology, or because of advertising. I think if the Barbie shape showed up in all cultures , then maybe it is a genetic predisposition. But right now, I’m gonna have to blame advertising.

I guess the real lesson of the study is, just remember, you’re not looking at porn, you’re doing important evolutionary analysis & research.

food prices

“…Rising Food Prices”
And once again a case of Chicken-Little. Sure, food prices are up a bit.
The news article does say in the slide side bar that the USA spends about 7% of budget on food, which is nothing from historical standpoint. In the 1930s we spent ~22%. Today, France spends about 13%. (Take that socialism!)

Also, in comparing the average spending of families twenty years ago, how much has the sale of “organic” food gone up. Free-range chicken wasn’t an option at the local Safeway when I was a kid. So, people have more expensive options to put in their carts.

There has been droughts in Russia & Australia, more demand for meat in India & China, increased biofuel demands, all these send up prices. But I don’t think we as a nation need to worry about the rising cost of food.

Yes, please continue to donate to food banks. They sometimes get forgotten when free-range-ultra-organic-uniodized-rock-salt gets over $3 an ounce.

Now for real problems. Because, we in America, don’t have real problems with food. There are hungry people in the world. I think it is a logistics issue and an infrastructure issue. What can we do, to make sure people don’t starve?

how do you lose? & NBA playoffs

I think how one responds to a loss tells more than how many trophies one has.

For instance, I’ve seen teams that should’ve been good for many years, wither and die with infighting after stunning losses. I’m thinking about how the Lakers destroyed the will of Portland & Sacramento in conference finals. I’m thinking about how Dallas was on top of the world, but ever since they got beat by Miami a couple of years ago in the championship. Hasn’t been the same for them.

The Spurs are resilient, they can only get to the finals every other year, but those defeats don’t slow them down the next year. The Jazz back in their heyday fought strong, even though they lost to Jordon’s Bulls, they kept coming back for punishment.

wheels keep spinning round

…”Wheels” is a good song by Cake.

Today, we took the childrens shopping to the grocery with us. And we had one of those little carts with a car in front. Each had their own steering wheel. They were so very cute driving through the store.

Later, we took our new three wheel, side by side, jogging stroller for a test drive. Miss Squeaky was all about the excitement and was gripping the safety bar tight. (Yay! Soon MyBetterHalf will have some one to go on roller-coaster rides with.) Mr Grunty was laid back, real cool, enjoying the ride, lean back, with one arm propped up on the side. (I think he had his mind on his money and his money on his mind.)

Naturally, whilst I was assembling the stroller it was warm and sunny. And 20 minutes later, on our ride, it was cloudy & windy & cold.

Happy Birthday, Oliver!

Four years old…my first little fur-baby is all grown up.

of baths and butts

Miss Squeaky has a more refined way of taking a bath. None of the super-splashing that her brother does. No, Miss S first looks at the bubbles, tries to pinch them, then carefully picks some up, observes them closely, and then tastes them.

Mr. Grunty this morning, was propping himself up with his arms, holding his chest and head up high, which he’s been doing for awhile. But then, was also practicing sticking his butt in the air at the same time! Yay, soon crawling, I hope.

Oh man…I am not ready for two crawlers.

gun control

Wow…in my opinion,
Wal-mart made a positive step. And, supported by billionaire (is he still “Republican”)
NYC mayor Bloomberg, (maybe even with his own funds?)

I don’t believe that any of the 10 points interfere with the second Amendment. (Well, it might make it more difficult for a criminal to purchase at Wal-mart.)

And, my response to the NRA…it is a set of policies developed by private companies, encouraged by bi-partisan city mayors. The federal gov’mint has nothing to do with this.

Seriously, what is the problem with registering your guns?
You have to register to vote. You have to register to have a parade. What I would like the NRA to propose…how do we keep guns out of the hands of criminals, and mentally unstable. I admire their devotion to fire arm safety training. I think it would be great if everyone went to an NRA fire arm safety course before they bought a gun.

…wow…some of these measures seem common sense to me…