Epsilon Exploits & Familial Foibles March 2009 Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec Blog Archive: 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 Video Archive Wine Glossary Physics Glossary Thumbnails Shutterfly Links are good as of their posting date. Comments may be directed to bradley@wogsland.org.

Who says you can't have fun at work... today I built a nice little twitter app to torment people who twitter about potatoes. Why potatoes? Well, alot of people twitter about potatoes for some reason.

Blizzards to the south in Kansas; blizzards and flooding to the north in the Dakotas; here in Nebraska it's in the 60s again. How do we get all the luck?

Today Maxwell and I did the State Farm Run. He ran the 1 mile holding Cara's hand and finished in 12:15. After running the whole way he was disappointed to learn that people who had walked also got medals. Nevertheless he wore it for the rest of the day. I have not been training as well in the cold weather and finished my 5K in 30:29 with much difficulty. Too bad they didn't run it last weekend when it was in the 70s rather than this weekend when it was in the 20s.

Tonight Maxwell lost his first tooth. It's been loose for almost a month now, and Cara and I have tried to get him to let us pull it many an evening. In the end it was a chocolate chip that knocked it out. But don't take my word for it - hear him tell the tale!

As the season warms up we've spent the past couple weekends househunting again. While I have trepidation about planting roots here in Lincoln in the midst of a recession, interest rates and a buyer's market argue strongly for taking the plunge. Our lease won't be up til late summer though, so we've got plenty of time. Cara has embraced the task with gusto, even looking into the possibility of building in new neighborhood so she can pick details. Sounds like more work than it's worth to me. I just want enough land to get back to gardening. Big lots seem to be nearly non-existent here in town where the good schools are though. Renting may be throwing money down the toilet, but it's a flexible toilet to swim in...

Tonight we're enjoying the firepit for the first time this year. It's a nice cap to a warm sunny Saturday. The great thing about living far enough north to actually get winter is that spring comes sooooo much faster. After the equinox our days here will be longer than they are back in the south and I am looking forward to many long summer evenings like this one.

We recently started watching the Battlestar Galactica series which has inspired me to compile this list of the Top Ten Reasons Cara Might Be a Cylon: 10. She believes she is not a cylon. 9. Interfaces with computers more effectively than anyone I know. 8. She can eat anything she wants and process only the amount she needs, maintaining a perfect figure. 7. Denies cylonhood. 6. It seems her purpose is to distract me from accomplishing meaningful work. 5. Attempt to register as many humans as possible with cylon high command (facebook). 4. Cara with a "C", not Kara with a "K" 3. Flawless body. 2. Likes to frak. 1. Has complete control over me.

Today I met another 10th cousin via Wogsland.org. Brittany Kitzke grew up in Knoxville. When her grandmother recently died she got a box of genealogy information and started to do some searching. When she came upon a reference to her grandmother and parents in my grandpa's correspondence, she shot me an email. We've since exchanged a few and discovered the commonality of our interests. It's wild how paths cross sometimes: if we still lived there Shirley Wogsland Kitzke would have been met by Cara in the Parkwest ER just before she died.

Ah, Spring: 70 degree weather, beautiful sunshine, bugs in the air, buds on the trees and beestings. I remember my first beesting, when I was 4 at Grandma & Grandpa's house. I bent my elbow not seeing the bee in it and it stung me. The fear, the pain - it was not fun, but I do remember the baking soda poultice which made it feel better. Today Maxwell had a similar experience. Biking in the front yard he tried to smack a bee off his face and got a sting for his trouble, right on his cheek. His screams had as much fear in them as pain. Something so small and yet able to inflict such pain can be terrifying. His sisters were first on the scene and picking a scab off his ear which they were convinced was the stinger. Well intentioned, but probably just added to his suffering. I got there and pulled the stinger out whilst Cara prepared a baking soda poultice. He was nervous about having this strange substance applied to his face, so I let him touch it first. Poor guy. After the poultice had set and the crying had subsided, I asked Maxwell if he needed to watch a movie or if he still wanted to do the art project we had planned for the evening. He was not about to miss out on an art project and perked up immediately, so we headed down to the crafty closet to choose paints. As I write this he and Zara are enjoying a post-painting bubble bath while Alora & Brittan visit their new middle school for next year with Cara.

Meatza
for the milk allergic with love from mama

Tonight we're still setting up the playroom - formerly known as Zara's room. We've given up trying to force her and Maxwell to sleep in rooms by themselves. Of course, with two beds in one room there's not much room left over for toys.

Tonight I am drinking my first decidedly Hungarian wine, Bull's Blood. A bit on the mediocre side, but it does have an interesting minerality to it. If you want to keep up with what I'm drinking you can follow TheWineRater on Twitter.

En route to many a goal there is a point at which forward progress stalls out perhaps a retrenchment occurs. This presents a good spot to take stock and either renew one's vigor in pursuit of the goal or conclude that this is a task at which success is unlikely. Below is a graph which adequately demonstrates this psychosis. A sinusoidal plus linear fit would do nicely I think. The valleys are attempts and the peaks retrenchments. Extrapolating the linear term into the future I will hit 300 lbs around 2022. Optimists believe I have control over this fate; that with sufficient wherewithal I can overcome this linear term. All it takes is 50 calories/day of overeating to sustain this term though. Evolutionarily speaking it would have made sense to have this term built in when we lived in a work of scarce rather than abundant food. Should I accept this fate as inevitable or fight? Perhaps I cannot get smaller, but at least I can inhibit further growth. A saying I particularly loathe claims that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Should weight gain also be added? Or should we throw out the list all together?

This past weekend the kiddoes did up their science fair projects.

Maxwell is a robot. He will destroy you. Behind him is George. George is our new plant. Alora named him. She will also love him and pet him. Say hello George.

An essay by Alora from her test on the Texas Revolution.

I guess this is what happens to people in their late 20's, but it seems that everyone I know is pregnant or has a babushka. My sister is pregnant. Cara's friend Kara is pregnant. Scott's wife Meredith is pregnant again. Julie at work is pregnant. Katie and Natalie have new babies. Scott's boy Whit just turned one. Gena and Bethanie at work have babies, and Monica is still on maternity leave. I do love babies!