4-0

Valentine's came and passed. As is traditional, I wore black. Some of you might wonder why I wore black, being happily married (and I am happily married). The fact of the matter is, I wear black because I choose to wear black. And you can choose to wear black without having to be a depressive society outcast, who tortures humanity with bad prose under the guise of self-expression.

Anyway, speaking of black, for Valentines' day I took my wife to see 'Coraline' in 3d. It was a fantastic show. It is probably best described as creepy, but enjoyable. There was one scene that had me groaning in disgust and distaste, but I'll leave it to you to find that part. I cannot speak for the non-3d versions of the film, but I do recommend the 3-d experience. An enjoyable moment for both of us is when the father starts singing and Trina recognized the voice as one of the John's from They Might Be Giants.

For Valentine's day I received pajamas and a tie. Trina received money and time for fabric shopping, as well as a book by Neil Gaiman, 'The Graveyard Book'. She wants me to read it to her. It's a Newberry award winner. Neil Gaiman also happened to be the writer of 'Coraline', the book. It was a Gaiman Valentine in many ways.

To wrap up the evening we headed to Sakura, a teppanyaki grill and sushi lounge. We went for the grill of course. The food was fantastic. As always happens at these types of establishments I ate more food than I could ever imagine eating and felt fine afterwards. I guess that's what happens when you actually get real food. At the end of the evening I even caught the shrimp in my mouth. Trina failed to on account of a bad throw. Guess that's what happens sometimes.

Of course, the whole evening was possible due to some friends of ours who babysat for 5+ hours. We did the same for them in the morning.

On a side note, while I still plan on posting here and there as the urge strikes me, this is about to become a once a week blog. Other writing has taken my time and I find blogging less important. And after all the other writing is done blogging becomes tedious too, even though it is the least energy consuming of all my writings. Check for updates on Monday mornings because I'll probably blog every Sunday regular. Ciao!

They pick up everything...like silly putty.

I am always amazed at what my daughter learns. She is a font of mimicry. We are constantly bombarded by her imitations of us. Even more amusing is when she starts singing songs. The other day she started singing along with me as I sang "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" by the Beat Crusaders (Warning: the song has one objectionable phrase in it). Naturally, I edit that phrase when I sing the song, and my daughter is unfamiliar with the actual lyrics. It was still amusing to me listening to her sing along with me, and she knew the lyrics. It probably helped that it was about stars, "Twinkle Little Star" is her favorite song.

As a kind of pitch, "Twinkle Little Star" plays a role in the new Terry Pratchett book "Nation." It's Young Adult fiction, but it comes highly recommended by me, especially if you enjoy Terry Pratchett's poignant and humorous commentary on everyday life. This book tackles the area of belief, and is very well done.

Anyway, Anna surprised me most today when she started singing Queen. Maybe it's the Wal-mart commercials.

18

Today I watched an episode of 'The Office' that I had previously missed. The episode began with Michael Scott dashing towards a police traffic recording device to see how fast he could run. This brought my wife to hysterics as she has seen me in this very same attempt. In fact, I first did it almost 8 years ago. The most cheering fact though is that I did it better. And soon I will dig up the evidence to prove it.