This is the view from my window. Immediately to the right and outside the frame is a door which opens onto the roof.
Monday, May 30, 2005
And this is the reason
That I have not put a table and chairs up there, and there is a really very sound deadbolt lock with a key on the door. Which key is hidden in an entirely different room. That is, this is the view of Nel's lovely garden from my lovely garden. Please note the complete absence of any kind of barrier preventing small boys from dropping from one to the other, inadvertently or otherwise.
*shudder* It will remain a garden of my own for as long as I can manage, or at least until they are old enough to shinny down the drain pipe.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Happy Birthday
Did you know that my beautiful sister shares a birthday with John Wayne and Lenny Kravitz and Hank Williams, Junior? But she is far too young to know who Lenny Kravitz is and is now opening a new window and Googling it.
Her horoscope for today is: Opportunities for friendship, pleasant associations, and enjoyable social interactions occur now. Personal relationships are harmonious and rewarding. Also, financial transactions go smoothly for you and material benefits are possible at this time.
This is the horoscope for Cancer. I know she is technically a Gemini, but due to an unfortunately timed golf tournament she is unquestionably a Cancer despite having been yanked into the world most rudely and too soon.
If she wants to know what her horoscope is not (that is the one for Gemini) she can look it up herself; I know the real deal. I am, after all, and will always be her Big Sister. And if your Big Sister doesn't tell you where it's at, who will?
Happy Birthday, Sistah Thang.
Her horoscope for today is: Opportunities for friendship, pleasant associations, and enjoyable social interactions occur now. Personal relationships are harmonious and rewarding. Also, financial transactions go smoothly for you and material benefits are possible at this time.
This is the horoscope for Cancer. I know she is technically a Gemini, but due to an unfortunately timed golf tournament she is unquestionably a Cancer despite having been yanked into the world most rudely and too soon.
If she wants to know what her horoscope is not (that is the one for Gemini) she can look it up herself; I know the real deal. I am, after all, and will always be her Big Sister. And if your Big Sister doesn't tell you where it's at, who will?
Happy Birthday, Sistah Thang.
Obscurity
It occurred to me recently that nearly everything I know something about or find interesting is obsscure as hell. I suppose I ought to have noticed this sooner. But I didn't so here we are.
Since one of the obscure things I know something about is secret codes and so on, I also know that there is a principle called security by obscurity which is the opposite of full disclosure. The idea is that the exploitable weaknesses in your system ought also to be hidden; part of your code can be the fact that nobody knows where the message is irrespective of where the key is. Perhaps I should found a school of psychology on the notion of obscurity.
I know a great deal about fairy tales and myths and legends. But what I know about them is where they came from and how they travelled and how we figure out what purpose they serve. Did you know that "Ring Around a Rosy" has absolutely not one single thing to do with the Black Plague or with death and was almost certainly written in the 1800s as part of a party game for little girls?
I could, as most of you know, go on and on. Well, actually, I can't as I have to go get Douwe from school and find out what Daan is screaming about. It's his "so happy to be alive" scream, so there's no hurry. But it was sort of a strange thing to realize.
Since one of the obscure things I know something about is secret codes and so on, I also know that there is a principle called security by obscurity which is the opposite of full disclosure. The idea is that the exploitable weaknesses in your system ought also to be hidden; part of your code can be the fact that nobody knows where the message is irrespective of where the key is. Perhaps I should found a school of psychology on the notion of obscurity.
I know a great deal about fairy tales and myths and legends. But what I know about them is where they came from and how they travelled and how we figure out what purpose they serve. Did you know that "Ring Around a Rosy" has absolutely not one single thing to do with the Black Plague or with death and was almost certainly written in the 1800s as part of a party game for little girls?
I could, as most of you know, go on and on. Well, actually, I can't as I have to go get Douwe from school and find out what Daan is screaming about. It's his "so happy to be alive" scream, so there's no hurry. But it was sort of a strange thing to realize.
Love
My kids went through my still unpacked suitcases yesterday like the little Vandals they are, and discovered the Playmobil toys which were concealed by all that other stuff. I bought them almost two years ago now, because there was a big sale and Playmobil never ever goes on sale. I had some thought of holding out for An Occasion, but once they saw them that was sort of it.
There was an airplane and a little grocery store and a little bathroom. Yes, the bathroom seems weird, but I was right to buy it because Daan was fascinated with it. The Playmobil guy took about seven showers that day.
Douwe pounced on the airplane, and many trips have been taken to America in the past 24 hours. Also to space, as he cannot decide whether to be an astronaut or a pilot when he grows up. The pilot of the plane we took home, who shoed the kids around the cockpit, pointed out that to become an astronaut one must first be a pilot. So it is not a question of choice -- I wondered if he had difficulty making up his mind, too, when he was younger. He certainly knew a lot about it.
Douwe loves the airplane, he washed it gently at bathtime and dried it carefully and tucked it up under the covers and sang it a song and kissed it goodnight. I found this rather odd, really.
Then I remembered how my father is about his red Corvette. And decided that there are some things that are enduring.
There was an airplane and a little grocery store and a little bathroom. Yes, the bathroom seems weird, but I was right to buy it because Daan was fascinated with it. The Playmobil guy took about seven showers that day.
Douwe pounced on the airplane, and many trips have been taken to America in the past 24 hours. Also to space, as he cannot decide whether to be an astronaut or a pilot when he grows up. The pilot of the plane we took home, who shoed the kids around the cockpit, pointed out that to become an astronaut one must first be a pilot. So it is not a question of choice -- I wondered if he had difficulty making up his mind, too, when he was younger. He certainly knew a lot about it.
Douwe loves the airplane, he washed it gently at bathtime and dried it carefully and tucked it up under the covers and sang it a song and kissed it goodnight. I found this rather odd, really.
Then I remembered how my father is about his red Corvette. And decided that there are some things that are enduring.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Time and more time
We are talking about time at my house. I have started up a weekly calendar with the nifty magnet thingies we got when we were home. At this moment, our calendar shows a week at a time and the weather today.
The weather magnet got changed three times today, from "cloudy" in the morning to "windy" at lunchtime and "sunny" in the afternoon. May have to rethink that weather thing; there have been days when we would have to use all five options and make some more as well. How many ways can you say "overcast and threatening to rain" in English? In Dutch there are quite a few.
The magnet for "happy birthday" caused quite a stir this morning; I had to explain to Daan again (and again) that when it is someone else's birthday it is not necessarily his birthday, too. Though I finally sang "Happy Birthday" to him at his insistence after he sang it to me. Douwe took me out to the petting zoo and then into town for french fries and a coke after school for my birthday. He even paid for it, though I had to give him the money first.
Well, I suppose I take him places I like for his birthday, too, so we are even. But I was quite surprised; he never did that before. I didn't actually get that it was for my birthday until he said so this evening at bedtime. I figured he just wanted french fries today.
I was the recipient of a rooftop garden for my birthday; I can tell that Nel picked out all the flowers because they were all blue and purple. Conversely, I can tell that Douwe picked out some of the flowers for Nel's garden because they are most decidedly not blue and purple; they are blazing red and yellow and orange. The herbs I picked out myself last week. Dearly Beloved made me two boxes to start the Square Foot Gardening project; only this being Europe it will have to be half meter gardening. I will post some more pictures tomorrow when I get everything into dirt -- the flowers are still in the post they came in. I also have to transplant my strawberries already as they are setting fruit and I think they don't have enough dirt to support his massive growth pattern. In any event, they have to be watered something like twice a day if it doesn't rain.
I also am now the proud owner of a stephanotis plant in a pot and Nel even remembered that I had expressed some small desire to try orchids. So she bought me a smallish version of the orchid we had for our wedding lo these many moons ago.
My sister Jennifer the Younger got her card here on exactly the right day, a feat of timing which may never again be surpassed. Well done. My sister Jennifer the elder bypassed the problem and sent me two e-cards, guaranteed to get there on the right day barring server incidents. (The kids seriously dig the airplane one).
Since the calendar is a hit we are proceeding on the time front with a little kit about time which I picked up in the States. It has a book which covers the notions of time -- seasons, months, and so on -- and has little things you can build and do to do with time. It starts with making your own sundial and progresses to making your own clock, then learning how to tell time from the clock. Douwe took one look at the box and decided we are making the clock tomorrow; the sundial has no moving parts you see.
It lacks a miniature working model of stonehenge to track the solstices and equinoxes, though, bummer. But it seems to have everything else.
However, I expect my children will discard all that twaddle about the cycles of the seasons and phases of the moon and so on and go straight for the real point -- the part that moves and does stuff and can be taken apart is fun, no way around it.
The weather magnet got changed three times today, from "cloudy" in the morning to "windy" at lunchtime and "sunny" in the afternoon. May have to rethink that weather thing; there have been days when we would have to use all five options and make some more as well. How many ways can you say "overcast and threatening to rain" in English? In Dutch there are quite a few.
The magnet for "happy birthday" caused quite a stir this morning; I had to explain to Daan again (and again) that when it is someone else's birthday it is not necessarily his birthday, too. Though I finally sang "Happy Birthday" to him at his insistence after he sang it to me. Douwe took me out to the petting zoo and then into town for french fries and a coke after school for my birthday. He even paid for it, though I had to give him the money first.
Well, I suppose I take him places I like for his birthday, too, so we are even. But I was quite surprised; he never did that before. I didn't actually get that it was for my birthday until he said so this evening at bedtime. I figured he just wanted french fries today.
I was the recipient of a rooftop garden for my birthday; I can tell that Nel picked out all the flowers because they were all blue and purple. Conversely, I can tell that Douwe picked out some of the flowers for Nel's garden because they are most decidedly not blue and purple; they are blazing red and yellow and orange. The herbs I picked out myself last week. Dearly Beloved made me two boxes to start the Square Foot Gardening project; only this being Europe it will have to be half meter gardening. I will post some more pictures tomorrow when I get everything into dirt -- the flowers are still in the post they came in. I also have to transplant my strawberries already as they are setting fruit and I think they don't have enough dirt to support his massive growth pattern. In any event, they have to be watered something like twice a day if it doesn't rain.
I also am now the proud owner of a stephanotis plant in a pot and Nel even remembered that I had expressed some small desire to try orchids. So she bought me a smallish version of the orchid we had for our wedding lo these many moons ago.
My sister Jennifer the Younger got her card here on exactly the right day, a feat of timing which may never again be surpassed. Well done. My sister Jennifer the elder bypassed the problem and sent me two e-cards, guaranteed to get there on the right day barring server incidents. (The kids seriously dig the airplane one).
Since the calendar is a hit we are proceeding on the time front with a little kit about time which I picked up in the States. It has a book which covers the notions of time -- seasons, months, and so on -- and has little things you can build and do to do with time. It starts with making your own sundial and progresses to making your own clock, then learning how to tell time from the clock. Douwe took one look at the box and decided we are making the clock tomorrow; the sundial has no moving parts you see.
It lacks a miniature working model of stonehenge to track the solstices and equinoxes, though, bummer. But it seems to have everything else.
However, I expect my children will discard all that twaddle about the cycles of the seasons and phases of the moon and so on and go straight for the real point -- the part that moves and does stuff and can be taken apart is fun, no way around it.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Jiggety Jig
We are home again, intact, but innocent of luggage. I am given to understand that my luggage should be arriving tomorrow from Cleveland, which seems odd as we changed planes in Cincinatti. Unfair, really, I have never been to Cleveland but my luggage has. I am assured that it is not lost, merely, um, on vacation without me. Still, if they actually can find it and deliver it (which remains to be seen) I will say that having it delivered here is an improvement over having to lug it home. That's a big if, though.
Still, it puts off the horrible unpacking for another day. Though if it never comes, hey at least I don't have to unpack it all.
The kids are asleep, though we are not sending them to school tomorrow, I don't have the energy for any incidents with Douwe's teacher arising from jet lag, whoops I mean his obvious social problems. But if the luggage comes through as promised it will be like Chrismas in May if I know my kids. Daan will have forgotten what was in the luggage; Douwe will have spent the day believing he will never see his brand new sky train again despite many parental assurances.
(Yes, I know, I don't believe it either despite many Delta assurances. No, I did not miss that.)
I cannot sleep. It must have been that last pot of coffee.
Added Tuesday morning: Well, it appears that the luggage is in Holland, the man at Delta, somewhat bemused by my doubting nature, assures me he has seen my luggage with his own eyes and it will indeed be delivered tomorrow morning. So we may be playing that whizbang interactive DVD game yet. Assuming I can get the stupid thing to speak its zeroes and ones in Dutch that is.
Still, it puts off the horrible unpacking for another day. Though if it never comes, hey at least I don't have to unpack it all.
The kids are asleep, though we are not sending them to school tomorrow, I don't have the energy for any incidents with Douwe's teacher arising from jet lag, whoops I mean his obvious social problems. But if the luggage comes through as promised it will be like Chrismas in May if I know my kids. Daan will have forgotten what was in the luggage; Douwe will have spent the day believing he will never see his brand new sky train again despite many parental assurances.
(Yes, I know, I don't believe it either despite many Delta assurances. No, I did not miss that.)
I cannot sleep. It must have been that last pot of coffee.
Added Tuesday morning: Well, it appears that the luggage is in Holland, the man at Delta, somewhat bemused by my doubting nature, assures me he has seen my luggage with his own eyes and it will indeed be delivered tomorrow morning. So we may be playing that whizbang interactive DVD game yet. Assuming I can get the stupid thing to speak its zeroes and ones in Dutch that is.
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