Camera shopping

Lazy salespeople bug me. I swear, the woman was standing about 4 feet away, doing absolutely nothing. She was pointedly eavesdropping on our conversation, noticing that we were serious shoppers, and observing that we were having trouble with floor models that were not working. And she didn't even say "May I help you?" She deserved what she got. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

H: I think this camera looks good.
T: Me too.
H: Good price, huh?
T: I think so.
H: Should we get it?
T: No.
H: No?
T: (loudly while staring at lazy salesgirl) I refuse to buy a camera from a place where no salesperson comes to ask if we need help! Look at her, just standing there staring at us! Listening to us talking about how the batteries in the display models are dead so we can't see how they work, and doing absolutely nothing! And we're the only people in here! What is wrong with her?! You know, we're friends with the manager. I'm gonna go call him right now, so I can tell him that she's a great big ...
H: Uhhhh ... We should go.

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No camera case requires weatherproofing that badly.

H: Look at this camera case!
T: Well, it's nice. But ...
H: It has a raincover!
T: Uh huh.
H: Check it out! See? It has a raincover!
T: It's $500.
H: Yeah. But it has a raincover!

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So many modes, so little time.

H: Interesting. This camera has a "Food" mode.
T: Quick! Throw it at the food court! Maybe it'll fetch us a snack!
H: No. It's for taking pictures of food.
T: If it doesn't make me dinner, I don't want it.

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Eventually, we found a suitable store. We bought a new digital camera. It's nice. It has a case. The case has a raincover. The case was not $500. Because we are not crazy.

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Yes, Holly, I see the irony. We have a camera, and absolutely no time to upload pictures, burn CD's, or send an email. Cry me a river.

Discussions and Desserts

We'd eaten dinner. We were having apple pie for dessert. H and I were reading sections of the paper. J was playing with his food and not really eating it. Jazzy and Jiver, the kitties, were scrounging under the table. All a normal evening. And then ...

J: (singing) Three blind mice! Three blind mice!

T: This ad really irks me.

H: (referring to a help wanted ad we saw last night) Why? Does it have a prostitute in it?

T: No. But listen to this:

"Cherished traditions and simle pleasures! $585,000
Over 2700 sf of ... "

H: SIMPLE pleasures?!?!?!

T: Oh, you got that, did you? Was it the $585,000 or the 2700 square feet that got you?

J: Three blind ... uh-oh ... J dropped apple pie on Jazzy!

Puppy-Hit-You, and other animal tidbits

J's Memaw stopped by the other day. She gave J a boxing kangaroo from Australia.

T: Is that a kangaroo?
J: No! Puppy!

J has affectionately named his kangaroo "Puppy-Hit-You". Even though he now seems to accept that it is in fact a kangaroo rather than a puppy, he still calls him "Puppy-Hit-You". He loves his kangaroo, and uses it as a pillow when he sleeps. Such a sweet little boy!

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On the subject of naming conventions, we found a second smaller snuggly stuffed panda for J to hold and play with. He loves both of his pandas, though the original Panda is still his favorite. He went to visit his Grandma, and he took both pandas with him.

G: (Pointing to the newer panda) Oh! And what's his name?
J: Other-Panda.

My son, folks. Cute as all get out, but not terribly creative just now.

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J has learned all kinds of animal sounds. He has learned that sheep say "Baa", and pigs say "Oink". He has learned that lions say "ROAR" (and since this is his favorite animal sound, he has attributed it to any silent animal, also. Who knew giraffes and kangaroos say "ROAR"). He has learned that goats have horns and that sheep have no horns. And he has named his little stuffed sheep "Sheepy-No-Horns" just to bring that point home. But he can't quite get the goat noise down.

T: What does a sheep say?
J: Baa!
T: What does a cow say?
J: Moo!
T: What does a piggy say?
J: Oink!
T: What does a goat say?
J: Sheepy-No-Horns!

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J can consistently count to 4 on his own. But then he often gets confused. It is clear, however, that his favorite number is 7.

J: 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 7 ... 8 ... 7 ... 5 ... 7 ...

While we know that he can consistently count to 4, he doesn't really seem to know what the numbers mean. He does not relate "one" or "two" to the actual number of objects present. We trust that will come eventually.

We were out for a short time this evening. We passed a woman. She was walking her dog. Just one dog. And she was by herself.

J: (Pointing out the window at her) Two puppies!
H: J, that's not very nice.

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J answers any "Are you a ..." type question with "No! I'm a baby!" For example:

T: Are you a big boy?
J: No! I'm a baby!

The other night, we were driving in the car. J was trying to order us around ... typical 2-year old.

H: Stop being so bossy.
J: No! I'm a baby!
H: Are you bossy?
J: No! I'm a baby!
H: You're bossy.
J: No! I'm a baby!
H: You're a bossy baby.
J: No! I'm a ... I'm a kangaroo!

Time for myself

Today, my chiropractor asked me if I was making any "time for myself".

I'd like to have answered yes. But I'm not quite sure what his mysterious phrase means.

Thoughts?

Things you never thought you'd hear yourself say

T: Help! My shoes are stuck together!

H: Do you love me despite the whole "Polish" thing?

(No, H is not being a biggot here. He was hooking up some software and, when it asked him to choose a language, he hit the wrong thing and picked ... Polish? Czechoslovakian? Who can tell? ... And then, he couldn't fix it because he doesn't read ... whatever language that was ... and the menu was naturally in the newly selected language. I was displeased.)

I love Sesame Street!

A little dazed

T: I don't understand this section of the ITA. It says I'm supposed to determine the amount by which the total of taxable capital gains for the year from dispositions of property exceeds the amount by which allowable capital losses for the year from dispositions of property exceeds the allowable business investment losses for the year. You see, I think it's the multiple use of the word "exceeds" that is confusing me.

H: (standing in the door, glassy-eyed and holding a plate of catfood) Mush?

Da Face!

J makes a particular face quite often. It's a shy, mischievous little look that we think is extremely precious. We want to remember it, but we've not been able to get a photo of it yet. Finally, our friend Morgan managed to snap a shot of J making "the face".



A little closer now:



She also got a shot of him feeding his Panda Cheerios at a dim sum brunch. Shame little J wouldn't eat anything other than Cheerios, though. (Of course he wouldn't; why would he?)



On the growth front, J has reached 23 lbs now! He is still below the weight chart for his age, but his height is improving, and he is now just above the 10th percentile. So if we can just get his weight to follow suit, he may be okay yet.

After a rather long absence

I'm back!

My computer crashed out for a while. Then it returned to almost normal. Now, after some minor tinkering by me, it is back up to near full capacity, and I can blog again! Not only that, but I can return to work on the magical mystical picture CD for my fantastically lovely sister-in-law. Assuming no more crashes, she should get it ... soon.

Highlights while I've been gone:

About a week and a half ago, J peed in the potty for the very first time! He has yet to repeat his feat. But he has peed on the floor twice, while pushing the potty around in the nude. And he has tried several times to use the potty as a hat, a step, and (if you'll believe it) a bed.

J now requires two soothers - a blue one, and a yellow one. He must suck on one and hold the other. If one is missing, he becomes quite irate. I have no idea how to wean him from the soothers.

I passed my Economics course with a 92!!

I'm still hurt from the car accident. I have a couple of slipped discs in the low back, which make all activity (sitting, walking, etc.) really painful. I'm seeing physio twice a week and chiro 2-3 times a week to try and remedy this situation. There is some nerve damage that has resulted from this, and I need to go for an MRI and nerve conduction studies to see the extent and also what can be done to fix it. I don't know when the tests will be just yet.

The garage has electrical, thanks to our very kind friend Darren. He rocks! Now it just has to pass City inspection, and then we can cover over the trench in the backyard. In the meantime, watch your step!

We have picked flooring for the house and have hired someone to install it. We have no time and wouldn't know where to start if we had to do it ourselves. Work should commence mid-June.

Our new furniture came in early. Now, we are really crowded, with way too much furniture in the living room. But the new TV is out of this world! I never thought we'd own anything like it. It's very cool!

Saw Spiderman 3 at the IMAX. I liked it a lot! Of course, I was a bit disappointed at the whole Venom thing. But a movie night out together, just me and H? Oh yes ... the movie was fantastic!

J's vocabulary is really picking up. He has realized that H and I have voice dialing on our cell phones, so he thinks life just works that way. Now, he grabs the main phone in our house and just gives it instructions - "Call Grannie" - and waits for a response. When we phone someone, he insists that he must talk to them. His conversations consist of "Hi", and then a quick survey of the room, explaining everything that he sees in very excited tones - "Panda; Wagon; Sippy; Thomas ..." You get the gist.

Tonight, however, J decided that he would only speak in gibberish. H tried to understand and decipher. The discussion went something like this:

J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: What?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: What's by the wall?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: A satellite dish?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: On the siding by the wall?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: I have no idea what you're saying.
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: When did you learn to speak Korean?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: She sells seashells by the seashore?
J: Yah!

Um ... no ... I don't think so ...

I'm workin' on it

I'm supposed to send my beloved and most patient sister-in-law a picture CD of J. I'm bad about sending pictures, and my sister-in-law loves to scrapbook so she needs them. Besides, she lives quite far away and would really enjoy seeing photos of her little nephew from time to time.

Every time I promise to send the pictures, things come up and I get so busy I can't find time.

Every. Time.

Tonight, I sat down and spent some time going through all of our pictures. Holy man, are there a lot of them!

I have one more large folder to go through, one more collection to upload from the camera, and likely a couple more Sears picture CDs to copy over. And I should also try and see if I can get any from my M&D's computer, since they've got a lot of good shots of our little guy.

Soon, Holly. Soon, you shall have your picture CD. Of course, there may be more than one!