What Have I Been Doing?

It's not like y'all have been clamoring for me, but a neighbor did say the other day, "Hey, you remind me of a blogger I used to read," so I thought I would try to get back on the horse. Things have been very very very busy. How, exactly? Not sure. Here's an incomplete list of the things I have been doing for the past few weeks:

1. Working

2. Throwing up (no, I am not pregnant. We all had the stomach flu last weekend)

3. Avidly following the "Mess in Mississippi". Basically the WSJ Law Blog and several other blogs know when Mr. Scobie is traveling to the Deep South before I do. I am not linking to them because I don't want any of them finding their way back to me. I won't be commenting on it, and if Mr. S objects to this paragraph, I will take it down.

4. Following the Writers' Strike:



5. Following the upcoming caucus with growing glee.

6. Preparing for Christmas.

7. Researching soup recipes.

That's about it. If I ever have anything interesting to say again, I will let you know.

Cracking Myself Up

Enjoy the family Christmas greetings by clicking HERE.

For the Unenlightened

Non-University of Chicago graduates are probably scratching their heads slightly at the comment by Steve after the post below. What is it with these Chicago people? So proud of their nerdiness. Geesh, I was a nerd in college too. (Thought balloon does not count if you were not a nerd. But since I don't know any non-nerds, I am not sure what you people think when you read Steve's comment). Let me give you a little taste of the ambrosia that draws the nerds in. Here's an admissions essay for the U of C:

Modern improvisational comedy had its start with the Compass Players, a group of University of Chicago students, who later formed the Second City comedy troupe. Here is a chance to play along. Improvise a story, essay, or script that meets all of the following requirements: It must include the line “And yes I said yes I will Yes” (Ulysses, by James Joyce).

• Its characters may not have superpowers.
• Your work has to mention the University of Chicago, but please, no accounts of a high- school student applying to the University—this is fiction, not autobiography.
• Your work must include at least four of the following elements:
• a paper airplane
• a transformation
• a shoe
• the invisible hand
• two doors
• pointillism
• a fanciful explanation of the Pythagorean Theorem
• a ventriloquist or ventriloquis
• the Periodic Table of Elements
• the concept of Jeong
• number two pencils

I went there and I am not even sure what all those things are (but ventriloquis is not a word). However, I feel reassured that I can stop grousing that Chicago has gotten easier to get in to.

The Nerdling

I really thought my first kid would be the nerdy (nerdier?) one. With his encyclopedic knowledge of military aircraft and paleo-historical creatures, his better-than-strong vocabulary has fully bloomed. But Thing 2 is sure giving Thing 1 a run for his money in the nerd department. At 16 months, the Q-ball is a complete bookworm. This is a common site (sorry about the photo quality - he's hard to sneak up on):


In case you are wondering what's going on in this picture, Q is "reading" a book on the couch. Every day, one by one, he pulls all the books off the shelf and leafs through them, sometimes humming or "talking" to himself. He chases us around the house, thrusting books at us, saying "mmm....mmm....mmmm....mmmm" until we finally stoop to read him something. Here's a better picture:
Dig the sweater vest?

Barely Holding It Together

That title of this post could refer to a number of things, including my weekend. I won't dwell on my weaknesses as a parent (holding it together until I dropped a full mango lasse on my foot and then almost crying like a baby), but rather discuss The One Show To Rule Them All. Yeah, The Wire.

Today, Season 4 was released on DVD. I pre-ordered it, so y'all will have to buy me something different for Christmas. I thought I could let it pass without mentioning, but UBM pointed out that there's at least one Wire "prequel" on Amazon. Pretty inside joke, probably improvised. There are two others you can get from the Season 4 DVD page.

Season 5 comes out January 6. You haven't heard the last of this. Please just watch it. Sheesh.

UPDATE: Okay, so I watched all three of them. They are like little love letters to Wire fans. Pure insider stuff, just meant to give us more about our favorite characters.